History books tell us that the planet Neptune was found in the mid-1800s after years of speculation and search.
But in 1613, more than two centuries before Neptune was officially discovered, Galileo Galilei knew he had found it, according to a new theory by University of Melbourne physicist David Jamieson.
Jamieson has been studying Galileo’s notebooks and found some interesting, buried notations that suggest the great astronomer – then working with a crude, early telescope he crafted himself – was onto something big.
It has long been known that Galileo observed Neptune, but it was thought that he discounted the object as a star and gave it no further thought. But it turns out Galileo may have known the “star” had moved in relation to other stars, Jamieson reveals. That sort of movement would have caught Galileo’s attention, since he knew that it was just the sort of thing planets did.
A new study in the Thursday’s issue of Nature predicts there’s a real, albeit slim, possibility of a planetary smash-up inside the inner solar system due to the Mercury’s distinctly lopsided orbit.
Vladimir Putin
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