Neptune Discovered
1846
After Le Verrier in Paris calculated where an unseen planet should be from Uranus's wobbles, a young German astronomer named Galle pointed a Berlin telescope at the spot and found it on the first try. Newton's law of gravitation, applied at the tip of a pencil, had conjured a new world out of mathematics.
In context
Also in 1846 (3 other events on record)
- Mexican-American War Declared · North America · War
- Corn Laws Repealed · Europe · Politics
- Iowa Joins Union · North America · Politics
Before and after in Europe
Before and after in Science
- Before: 1843: Ether Anesthesia Glimpsed
- After: 1847: Semmelweis's Discovery
Era
Industrial Age (1801–1900), one of 513 events from that era on Saeculum.