Herald of the times, and Rhode Islander. [volume] (Newport, R.I.) 1846-1849, 1846-11-12
The Newly Discovered Planet.

Most of the daily papers have recently an
nounced new member Of the Solar System
but few seem to be aware of the really wonder
ful nature Of this discovery. II has long been
conjrclured that there might exist other plan
els yet unseen, perhaps beyond the present
known bounds OF the solar system bul none
till recently was able TO assign any very good
reason for such belief NJ. lie Verrier, ~
French mathematician, lately demonstrated the
existence Of such body, from the motions OF
the planet Uranus. Uranu- was first discoy-
cred 10 be planet in 1881 I; but had been re-
peatedly observed before by several astronomers
and mistaken for fixed star. Nineteen obser-
vations of this description are on record, one OF
them dating aS far back as 1890 Twenty-Five
years ago, NJ. Bouvard of Paris, attempted TO.
construct new tables for this planet !; bm he
found Il impossible to unite all the observations
in one elliptic orbit and in order to reconcile
the modern observations, he rejected the ancient
ones entirely But even then the planets mo-
tion could not be correctly represented for in
ten years these tables we're found to be in error
half minute, and since then the errors have
increased to two minutes of space. Astrono-
mers have been much puzzled by these discrep-
ancies. Some conjecured that at the immense.
distance Of 1900 millions of miles from the SUM-,
the Newtopan law of gravitation might not be
strictly true while others ascribed the effect
to the attraction of some undiscovered planet.
NJ. lie Verrier has settled the question. In a
paper read before the French Academy of Sci
ences on the 3lst of August last, he demonstra-
ted that all the observations of Uranus since
1000 could be perfectly represented by sup
posing the existence of planet at vgreat dis
tance beyond Uranus and he proceeded to
assign its precise magnitude and position. Its
distance from the sun was $500 millions of
miles il made one revolution in 2l7 years;
and It's weight was 81 times that of our earth.
He assigned its present position near the star
Delta Capricorni; its brightness about one
third thai of Uranus, which would make it a
star Of the eighth magnitude and he conclu-
ded that good telescope must show it with an
appreciable disc. lie then wrote 10 DR.. Gale
OF Berlin to look for it in the place he had indi
Gated Gale Joxad 1t Me. first night. II was a
star OF the eighth magnitude had an apprecia-
Die disc, and was near the spot which lie Yer
rier had computed. This discovery was made
on the 23d of September the planet was OBJ
served at London on the 30th, and has since
9s 9een seen al several places in this country
There Is no doubt that LIE verriers orbit is
near approximation to the truth. The planets
place m the heavens, its distance, and its mag
nilude had been correctly computed and all
from studying the motions of another body dis
tant from it at the nearest, about 1900 millions
OF miles The annals of science may be search
ed in vain for discovery equally wonderful.
When Laplace computed the figure of the earth
from an analysis of the motions of the Moon. it
seemed almost the work of omniscence but
Laplace only arrived by a new method, at re-
suit known before. lie Verrier, by studying
the motions of a distant and obscure planet, de-
monstrated the existence of body before un-
known'-told where it was what orbit it was,
pursuing !. and how many pounds it weighed.
The astronomer had but to point his telescope,
and this distant body so long buried in the
Int.fl he Of i
such perplexity, was caught al once. The dis
covery confirms the accuracy of the Newtonian
law of graviation, and explains all the anoma-
lies i'll the motions of Uranus,
New-York University, Nov, ID.
LOOMS.