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You are here: Home / Science / What Is Wrong With the Orbit of the Planet Uranus and How Did the Planet Neptune Get Its Name?

What Is Wrong With the Orbit of the Planet Uranus and How Did the Planet Neptune Get Its Name?

July 3, 2020 by Karen Hill

After William Herschel’s discovery of Uranus in 1781, astronomers studied the new planet carefully, but something was wrong with its orbit.

It went wildly off track, and some scientists even started to question Newton’s laws of gravity.

The mystery remained unsolved until 1846, when another planet was discovered in orbit beyond Uranus.

English astronomer John Couch Adams and French astronomer Urbain Leverrier each discovered the huge planet whose gravitational pull was influencing Uranus.

The planet was named Neptune after the Roman sea god.

Related Facts

  • How did astronomers discover the planet Neptune and When?
  • How Was Neptune Discovered and How Did Astronomers Determine That the Planet Neptune Existed Beyond Uranus?
  • How Cold Is the Planet Neptune and Why Is Neptune About the Same Temperature As Uranus?
  • How Did Sir Frederick William Herschel Discover the Planet Uranus and What Did Herschel Do Before Astronomy?
  • When Was Uranus Discovered, How Did the Planet Uranus Get Its Name, and What Does Uranus Mean In Greek?
  • How Does Uranus’s Tilt On Its Axis Effect Its Orbit and How Long Does Uranus Take To Orbit the Sun?

Filed Under: Science

About Karen Hill

Karen Hill is a freelance writer, editor, and columnist. Born in New York, her work has appeared in the Examiner, Yahoo News, Buzzfeed, among others.

Previous Post: « What Were William Herschel’s “Island Universes” and What Does the Word Nebulae Mean In Latin?
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