The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-08-17
THE SALT LAKE HERALD MONDAY AUGUST, II. 1885,

to take place in the movements of the
heavenly bodies, admitted of being COM
pleteiy accounted for as consequences
of such attractions. Thus for instance.
in the case of two mighty neighbor-
ing planets, Jupiter and Saturn there
was an irregulality in the movement
OF Jupiter which was most safisfactor-
lily explained TO be a consequence of
the attraction Of the planet Saturn, and
a corresponding irregularity in the
movement of Saturn was satisfactorily
attributed to the disturbing effect of
Jupiter.
When it appeared that Uranus was
performing movements which indicated
that the planet was affected by certain
perturbationS, attempts were naturally
made to account for those perturba-
lions by showing that they were the
consequences Of the attractive power
of the other bodies in the solar sys-
tenn. The effects which Jupiter could
produce upon Uranus admitted of be-
ing estimated, and so also the disturb
ing influence of Saturn as we'll as of
the other planets could be certainly
ascerTained. After due allowance had
been made for all known sources of
that there were still certain discrepan-
cies outstanding between the places
actually occupied by the planet dis
covered by Herschel and the places in
Which calculations seemed to locate it.
The belief in the universal validity OF
the laws Of gravitation is 50 well
founded that it suggested the POSSIBLE
ity that the peTturb9fions of Uranus
which could not be otherwise account
ed for, must be due TO the attraction
of some other planet which was quite
unknown to astronomers. This gave
rise to one Of the grandest intellectual
problems which the mind of man has
ever undertaken to solve.
Let it be observed that the facts with
which astronomers had to deal in their
quest of the unknown planet were SIM
ply these. The position in which Uran-
US was actually found, differed from
the positions which the planet would
have been held had there been no 9th
er agents acting upon it, except those
which are already known. According
ly two accomplished ma6hematicians,
LIE VerIier in France and Adams in.
England, undertook to investigate the
Whereabouts Of a conceivable planet
which should be capable of producing
precisely these disturbances in the mo-
ton of Uranus which had actually been
observed. 1t need hardly be said that
the solution of this question involved
refinementS of mathematical research
which could not be here reproduced.
We may, however. indicate an outline
of the methods which had to be pur-
sued in this extraordinary investiga-
ton. First, some we'll considered guess
or assumption had to be hazaTded as
to the distance from the sun at which
the suggestions planet might be likely
to revolve. Its orbit should certainly
be presumed to lie outside that of IRA
nus, and from a certain curious law
which governed the distances of the
other planets from the sun with some
regularity, 1T was possible to anticipate
What the distance from the sun of an
additional planet revolving outside
Uranus might be reasonably expected
to amount to. The weight OF the hypo-
thetical planet could also in the first
instance be only estimated rather
vaguely, but the assumptions being
made, III became possible to calculate
the effect which such a body, if it
readily existed, would produce upon
Uranus.
1t could hardly be expected that a
first attempt of this kind would provide
a satisfactory explanation of the irreS-
ulagities in the motion OF Herschels
planet, but by making successive trials,
in which the unknown planet was
placed at different distances from the
sum- and assumed to have different
magnitudes, light gradually dawned on
the subject. Both Of the iilustrious as
tronomers, LIE Verrier and Adams, each
pursuing his researches independently
of the ether, came at last to the conclu-
sion that it was quite possible to deter
mine the whereabouts of the unknown
planet from the study Of its action re-
fiected so to speak, in the movements
of Uranus. Indeed, it is a, most re-
marka bic circumstance that the two in
vestigators should have concurred, not
only in determining the track of the
unknown planet, but even in ascertain
ing the very spot in the heavens which
the unknown object occupied. When
Adams and LIE Verrier found that this
II pothetical body did exercise precisely
that kind and degree of attractive pow
er upon Uranus, which would provide
the necessary explanation of its pertur-
bations, their confidence that the hyDo-
thetical body must have a vertical ex-
istence rose to absolute certainty.
LIE Verrler's calculations having been
completed he not only ascertained the
track in which the unknown planet
moved and the mass of that body, but
he was able to learn its movement
through the heavens, so as to know the
place among the stars which it occu-
pied day after day. At last he felt so
confident that this planet could now be
detected by the telescope that on the
18th of September, 1876, a day from
henceforward tC be memorable in the
annals of astronomy, LIE Verrier wrote
to DR.. Gale, astronomer at the Berlin
observatory. requesting him to direct
his telescope on a particular spot of
the sky, which was carefully indicated,
and there, said lie Verrier in effect,
you will see a planet which l have not
seen, and which no human eye has ever
seen, but which, nevertheless, must lie
Ia that spot, because my calculations
have pointed out the necessity of its
existence. 1t may sound almost like a
romance when we are told that this
astonishing prediction was literally
fulfilled. On the very evening of the
day on which lie Verrier's letter was
received at Berlin, DR.. Gale was able
to comply with the request made Of
him. He was fortunately in possession
of an accurate chart of the stars in
that part of the heavens which the spot
indicated by LIE Verrier was situated.
This circumstance greatly facilitated
his search. He compared the several