Although he was the first to suggest the presence of Neptune, John C. Adams didn't make the official discovery of the planet. Credit: Wikimedia Commons
On June 5, 1819, British mathematician and astronomer John C. Adams was born in in Cornwall. The first to predict the existence of Neptune, he wrote in his journal on July 3, 1841: “Formed a design in the beginning of this week of investigating, as soon as possible after taking my degree, the irregularities in the motion of Uranus . . . in order to find out whether they may be attributed to the action of an undiscovered planet beyond it.” Although Adams finished nearly precise calculations of the location of Neptune in September 1845, a breakdown in communication left time for Urbain Jean Joseph Le Verrier of France to make the official discovery in September 1846 – to the chagrin of Great Britain.
