Le Verrier

Urbain Jean Joseph Le Verrier

Born: 11 March 1811 in Saint-Lô, France
Died: 23 Sept 1877 in Paris, France

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Le Verrier was appointed to teach astronomy at the École Polytechnique in 1837 and abandoned his first subject of chemistry. He worked at the Paris Observatory for most of his life where his drive for efficiency made him very unpopular.

His main work was in celestial mechanics. Working independently of Adams, Le Verrier calculated the position of Neptune from irregularities in Uranus's orbit. He was better served by the German astronomer Galle (who found the planet in 1 hour) than Adams was by Airy (who observed the planet first without recognising it).

Le Verrier's discovery of a discrepancy in the motion in the perihelion of Mercury was important in the evidence for Einstein's general theory of relativity although Le Verrier attributed this to a planet, which he called Vulcan, closer to the Sun than Mercury.

References elsewhere in this archive:

Tell me about Le Verrier's work on orbits and gravitation

References:

  1. Dictionary of Scientific Biography
  2. Biography in Encyclopaedia Britannica
  3. J Bertrand, Éloge historique de Le Verrier, Annales de l'Observatoire de Paris, Mémoires 15 (1880), 3-22.
  4. Centenaire de la naissance de U-J-J le Verrier (Paris, 1911). 
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