Le Verrier, Urbane Jean Joseph

Le Verrier was born in 1811 in Saint-Law , a department of the English Channel in northwestern France . He received his primary education at the gymnasium of his hometown, then moved to the Cayenne Polytechnic School, where he was to complete his school education. However, he did not succeed, as he did not pass the final exam. Le Verrier moved to the College of Louis the Great in Paris, where he graduated from the course with the first award in mathematics. After that, he attended the Polytechnic School for some time, but soon left it and moved to a paid engineer position in the Paris excise office (Administration des Tabacs). This calm and secure place was not to the liking of the twenty-two-year-old Le Verrier. Not having spent two years in the Office, he returned to science and began teaching at Stanislas College ^[1] .

During leisure hours, which he had quite a lot of, he was engaged in chemistry and, in addition, made astronomical calculations, the precise processing of which he attracted the attention of Arago and earned his friendship. In 1836, Le Verrier published his first work: “ Memoires sure le phosphor ”; soon, however, his chemical studies receded into the background, as he became interested in astronomy. In 1837 he returned to the Polytechnic School as an assistant to the department of astronomy. His first astronomical work - “Research on secular disturbances of planetary paths ”appeared in 1839. In it, he first indicated the limits of changes in the elements of planetary orbits and gave tables of elements for an interval of 200,000 years. After that, at the invitation of Arago, Le Verrier entered the Paris Observatory as an astronomer, where he continued to deepen his astronomical knowledge. A few years later he published his first calculations on the passage of Mercury against the background of the Sun on May 8, 1845 and on the trajectory of Comet Fay (November 22, 1843) ^[1] .

At that time, astronomers around the world were very much interested in the issue of disturbances in the planetary orbit of Uranus. Already in 1821, Bouvard expressed the view “that not all observations related to Uranus can be represented by the same system of elements”, and in 1834 he suggested that the anomalies could be explained if a larger disturbing planet were allowed . Bouvard also tried to calculate the orbit of this alleged planet, but his methods were insufficient. “Unknown intruder of the world in the universe” caused an interesting correspondence between the main astronomers of the time Bessel , Arago , Herschel and Airy . Unfortunately, not everyone equally recognized the importance of this theoretical discovery, and it was Airy who met him very coldly, since "all this seemed to him insufficiently clarified."

The question of the planet also attracted attention thanks to the Göttingen Academy of Sciences , which in 1842 announced a prize for the work: "Give a new treatment of the theory of motion of Uranus that meets modern scientific requirements, and present the main points with sufficient completeness." The prize was fifty ducats , an amount quite large for that time. But for this award, not a single applicant was found.

However, the task again attracted the keen interest of the most influential astronomers of that time. Arago, who considered Le Verrier the most capable mathematician, insisted that he use his talent to solve this problem. Thus, Le Verrier began to calculate this unknown planetary orbit. At the same time, Adams (a little younger than Le Verrier, later a professor and director of the Cambridge Observatory) tried to solve the same problem. It so happened that both scientists almost simultaneously got a solution. Later, this caused an unpleasant debate in the scientific world about priorities. The fact is that in 1845 Adams submitted his calculations to the Cambridge Observatory, which he began in his words back in 1843. Then, a few months later, the work of Airy followed, which meanwhile changed its initial attitude to the issue (Adams calculations were published only in 1847 and 1851). Based on the work of these two English scientists, Cambridge professor Challis was looking for a planet. According to the British scientists, he found it, but "due to the lack of a sufficiently detailed map of this part of the heavens, he could not immediately recognize it."

Meanwhile, Le Verrier in 1845 and 1846 submitted calculations to the Paris Academy of Sciences and established the alleged elements of the orbit of the perturbing body. This work was entitled Recherches sur les mouvements de la planete Herchel dite Uranus . Leverrier immediately sent one copy of this work to Berlin to astronomer Johann Halle , who was then an associate and observer at the Berlin Observatory and had good star maps at his disposal. Galle, having received a letter from Le Verrier on September 23, 1846, immediately began observing and that very night he found an unknown planet, disturbing the movement of Uranus, very close to the place indicated by Le Verrier.

Le Verrier and Halle became famous throughout the world, while Adams and Challis remained in the dark for a long time. Only later was their participation in the search for Neptune recognized, but at first all the honors went to Le Verrier. At first, Arago suggested, according to customary practice, to christen the planet found by the name Le Verrier, but a number of scientists spoke out against this - mainly English astronomers, to whom Struve also added his voice. Thanks to this, the planet received a different name, namely Neptune. Galle, for his part, wanted to call the planet “Janus”, but Le Verrier rejected this name, citing the following remark: “the name Janus would indicate that this planet is the last in the solar system, but we have no reason to think so.”

After the discovery of Neptune, Le Verrier began to study the deviations of the orbit of Mercury , caused, in his opinion, by another planet, which he gave the name Vulcan . This provoked a wave of false detections that continued until 1915 , when Einstein explained this anomaly using his theory of relativity .

Also, Le Verrier was engaged in the calculations of comet Lexel (1770) and other celestial bodies. At his insistence, a network of meteorological stations was established in France.

The French government appointed Le Verrier to be professor of celestial mechanics at the Faculte des Sciences, and the Paris Academy of Sciences included him among its members; Louis Philippe and the Prussian king granted him honorable distinctions. After the death of Bouvard and Arago, Le Verrier was elected (1854) ^{[2] the} life director of the Paris Observatory: he held this post until his death, except for a short break during the siege of Paris and the rule of the commune (1870–1872). The Channel Department in 1849 elected him as its deputy. In the hall of the Academy, the government put a bust of Le Verrier for "eternal times." Louis Napoleon immediately upon entering the throne granted the scientist the title of senator ^[1] . Le Verrier was awarded the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1868 and again in 1876 .

In 1855, Le Verrier organized the operational collection of meteorological data in France by telegraph for weather forecasting ^[3] .

In 1859, Le Verrier, on the basis of 40-year observations of the Paris Observatory, developed the theory of motion of Mercury and discovered that the perihelion shift of this planet occurs a little faster than the predictions of celestial mechanics . Le Verrier considered this anomaly a sign of the presence of an unknown planet near the Sun, but attempts to detect it were unsuccessful. Subsequently, this bias turned out to be a strong argument in favor of replacing the Newtonian theory of gravitation with Einstein's General Theory of Relativity .

Le Verrier's most important works are collected in the Annales de l'Observatoire de Paris, which he founded, which he managed to publish 14 volumes of Memoirs (1855–76), in addition to Observations; the latter published 22 volumes (1858–1867).

Urbain Le Verrier died in Paris on September 23, 1877 . He was buried in the cemetery of Montparnasse .

A monument to Le Verrier was erected in the garden of the Paris Observatory . His name is given:

• • Crater on the moon
  • Crater on Mars
  • One of the rings of Neptune
  • Asteroid (1997) Le Verrier .

Athanasius Fet has a poem "Neptune Leverrier" (1847) ^[4] .

• Kolchinsky I.G., Korsun A.A., Rodriguez M.G. Astronomers: A Biographical Reference. - 2nd ed., Revised. and additional .. - Kiev: Naukova Dumka, 1986. - 512 p.
• Leverrier, Urbain Jean Joseph // Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron : 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - SPb. , 1890-1907.
• Riedel P. Urbén Jean Joseph Leverrier. On the hundredth anniversary of his birth - March 11, 1911 // V.O.F.E.M. . - 1911. - No. 544 . - S. 96-99 .