print email comment close The Case of the Pilfered Planet: Did the British Steal Neptune? URL: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=the-case-of-the-pilfered Description: This 2004 article explores the "story of mathematical sleuthing and telescopic detection of the planet that [French mathematician Urbain Jean Joseph] Le Verrier named Neptune ... [and] the controversy set off when, soon after ... the discovery, it emerged that a young and little-known English mathematician, John Couch Adams, had independently tackled the same problem and deduced much the same position -- before Le Verrier had." Includes a related sidebar. From Scientific American. Author: Sheehan, William; Kollerstrom Nicholas; Waff, Craig B. Publisher: Scientific American, Inc. LII Database Information: Record 24508 created by Jennifer English on 09/11/2007 Last modification on 09/04/2009 Published: 09/20/2007   Funding agency: California State Library LII Item ID: http://lii.org/cs/lii/view/item/24508