Neptune

the outermost of the known planets. Named for the Roman god, Neptune. According to Bode's Law, stated in the article on PLANETS, a new planet was to be expected beyond Saturn. The behaviour of Uranus also indicated the presence of a disturbing influence. An astronomer in Paris computed the probable size and position of the planet and wrote a friend in the Observatory of Berlin when and where to look and what to look for. As the result a new planet was discovered September 23, 1846, and the claim of astronomy as an exact science was strengthened. As a matter of fact Jupiter is not so far from the sun as Bode's Law would require, and it has been suggested that the breaking down of Bode's Law indicates that Neptune is the last planet and that no planetary bodies exist beyond its orbit. Neptune is so far from the sun that a person on Neptune could not see the sun clearly. It would seem smaller than Venus does to us. At that distance the light of the sun must be dim,--midway between our sunlight and moonlight. Although the volume is fifty-three times that of the earth, Neptune is so far from us that it cannot be seen except with a telescope. Neptune has one satellite. See Planet

This working backward from the perturbations experienced by Uranus to the cause which produced them is justly regarded as one of the greatest scientific achievements of the human intellect, and is worthy of note that we are approaching the time at which it may be repeated, for Neptune now behaves much as did Uranus three quarters of a century ago, and the most plausible explanation which can be offered for these anomalies in its path is that the bounds of the solar system must be again enlarged to include another disturbing planet.--Comstock, 1901.