Having found Neptune on paper, Le Verrier used the same method to predict a planet that isn't there.

1859 · 1915 · apart: 56 years

In 1859 he proposed Vulcan, near the Sun, to explain Mercury's orbit; people 'saw' it for decades until Einstein explained the orbit in 1915 without it.

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The event

• Neptune found 'with the tip of a pen'1846 · Berlin Observatory. From the wobbles in Uranus's orbit, Urbain Le Verrier calculated where an unknown planet should be and wrote to Berlin. Johann Galle got the letter on 23 September 1846 and that same night found Neptune less than a degree from the predicted spot.

19th century · 20th century

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