John Couch Adams

Adams was born in Laneast, Cornwall in 1819 and trained as a mathematician. Working independently, he calculated the position of an unknown planet to account for Uranus's orbital discrepancies, predictions rooted in Kepler's and Newton's laws. Urbain Le Verrier made identical calculations at the same time, unaware of Adams's work, and sent his coordinates to Berlin Observatory astronomer Johann Gottfried Galle, who spotted Neptune on 23 September 1846 within 1° of Le Verrier's mark. The question of who deserved credit sparked controversy that never fully settled. Adams later explained the orig…