Urbain Le Verrier
1811 – 1877 · aged 66
French astronomer (1811-1877)
- Born
- 11 Mar 1811 · Saint-Lô
- Died
- 23 Sept 1877 · Paris
Life timeline
Their life from birth to death. On the timeline, world events of the time are shown faintly.
- 11 Mar 1811BornBorn in Saint-Lô
- 1831AwardConcours général
- 1846AwardCopley Medal
- 1846AwardOfficer of the Legion of Honour
- 1847AwardForeign Member of the Royal Society
- 1847AwardFellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
- 1849 – 1851RoleMember of the French National Assembly
- 1852 – 1869RoleMember of the general council
- 1852 – 1870RoleSecond Empire senator
- 1854 – 1870RoleDirector
- 1868AwardGold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society
- 1873 – 1877RoleDirector
- 23 Sept 1877DiedDied in Paris
Loading from Wikipedia and Wikidata…
Meanwhile in the world
Major world events during their lifetime (1811 – 1877).
- 1812 – 1815War of 1812
- 1814 – 1815Congress of Vienna
- 1853 – 1856Crimean War
- 1857 – 1858Indian Rebellion of 1857
- 1870 – 1871Franco-Prussian War
Biography
Urbain Jean Joseph Le Verrier (French: [yʁbɛ̃ ʒɑ̃ ʒozɛf lə vɛʁje]; 11 March 1811 – 23 September 1877) was a French astronomer and mathematician who specialized in celestial mechanics and is best known for predicting the existence and position of Neptune using only mathematics.
The calculations were made to explain discrepancies with Uranus's orbit and the laws of Johannes Kepler and Isaac Newton. Le Verrier sent the coordinates to Johann Gottfried Galle in Berlin, asking him to verify. Galle found Neptune the same night he received Le Verrier's letter, within 1° of the predicted position.
The discovery of Neptune is widely regarded as a dramatic validation of celestial mechanics, and is one of the most remarkable moments of 19th-century science.
Text from the Wikipedia article Urbain Le Verrier, CC BY-SA 4.0
About this information
Dates and life events come from this person’s Wikidata entry.
We only show events that the sources give a date for. Anything without a date is left out rather than guessed.