Galileo may have discovered Neptune 234 years before anyone else
Jamieson is investigating the notebooks of Galileo from 400 years ago and says that buried in the notations is the evidence that he discovered a new planet that we now know as Neptune, which was 'first' observed Sept 23, 1846 by Johann Galle at the Berlin Observatory..
...
Galileo was observing the moons of Jupiter in the years 1612 and 1613 and recorded his observations in his notebooks. Over several nights he also recorded the position of a nearby star which does not appear in any modern star catalogue.
"It has been known for several decades that this unknown star was actually the planet Neptune. Computer simulations show the precision of his observations revealing that Neptune would have looked just like a faint star almost exactly where Galileo observed it," Professor Jamieson says.
...
There is also a mysterious unlabeled black dot in his earlier observations of January 6, 1613, which is in the right position to be Neptune.
"I believe this dot could reveal he went back in his notes to record where he saw Neptune earlier when it was even closer to Jupiter but had not previously attracted his attention because of its unremarkable star-like appearance."
I have an inexplicable fondness for poor beleaguered Pluto too, dunno why. Maybe because a mere 8 planets sounds wrong after all these years. And the plucky little smidge has 3 moons, it should get some credit for effort.
There's no evidence presented that Galileo ever considered the dot a planet. There's not even any evidence that he considered it anything but one star out of thousands in the night sky.
Powered by DCForum+ Version 1.1 Copyright 1997-2002 DCScripts.com
Software has been extensively modified by the DU administrators
Important Notices: By participating on this discussion
board, visitors agree to abide by the rules outlined on our Rules
page. Messages posted on the Democratic Underground Discussion Forums are the
opinions of the individuals who post them, and do not necessarily represent
the opinions of Democratic Underground, LLC.