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Loading... The Neptune File: A Story of Astronomical Rivalry and the Pioneers of…by Tom Standage
   For Science! (21) Physics (8) No current Talk conversations about this book. Apparently my understanding of the controversy over Neptune's discovery was incomplete. Standage's call on Pluto saves the book from feeling too dated in the last few chapters. And really, most of the book is spent covering events that occurred over 150 years ago, so datedness isn't much of an issue. (  ) natcontrary | May 21, 2018 |  1 1/2 stars: Poor, draggy, not my thing. Perhaps put it down. ----------- From the back cover: On June 26, 1841, mathematician John Couch Adams stumbled across a report by Astronomer Royal, George Airy, describing the bizarre, unexplained orbital behavior of the planet Uranus. Adams theorized that the behavior could be explained by the gravitational pull of another planet, which had, up until then, never been seen or even posited before. If Adams were able to spot this mysterious new planet, he would have proven not only the existence of a new planet, but also the existence of a way to gain knowledge of worlds we cannot see. Unfortunately for him, he had a rival. The French astronomer Urbain Le Verrier calculated the planet's position shortly after Adams---and the race to see it began... -------------- First up-- I put down this book 126 pages into 234. I just couldn't summon up any more interest. Not sure what else to say than that. The book was simply uninteresting.... (  ) PokPok | Jul 4, 2015 | Adams, John Couch, 1819-1892/Neptune (Planet)/Planetology  Budzul | Jun 1, 2008 | no reviews | add a review
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The Neptune File tells the story of the gifted mathematician John Couch Adams and the discovery of the planet Neptune in 1846. Combining scientific triumph with international controversy, this is an intriguing tale of the search for an unseen planet, and the uproar it caused. More than just an intriguing historical yarn, Adam's work signified the beginning of a new era of planet hunting by providing astronomers with a powerful tool with which to search for new worlds. It marked the genesis of the idea that astronomers could find new planets by looking for their telltale gravitational influence on other bodies, rather than observing them directly with telescopes. In recent years this approach has led to an extraordinary series of discoveries - today's planet detectives are relying on a technique whose theoretical foundations were laid by their 19th-century predecessors. No library descriptions found. |
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 Google Books — Loading...GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)523.481 — Natural sciences and mathematics Astronomy Astronomical objects and astrophysics Planets, asteroids and trans-Neptunian objects Neptune Neptune [also see 523.48]LC ClassificationRatingAverage: (3.96)
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