biography
| name: |
Leverrier, Urbain Jean Joseph
|
pronunciation:
[luhveryay]
| sex:
| male
|
| lived:
| (1811–77)
|
| biography:
| Astronomer, born in St Lô, NW France. In 1836 he became teacher of astronomy at the Polytechnique, and 10 years later gained admission to the Academy. From disturbances in the motions of planets he predicted the existence of an undiscovered planet, and calculated the point in the heavens where, a few days afterwards, Neptune was actually discovered by Galle at Berlin (1846). In 1852 Louis Napoleon made him a senator, and in 1854 he became director of the observatory of Paris. |
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