1846 (MDCCCXLVI) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar and a common year starting on Tuesday of the Julian calendar, the 1846th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 846th year of the 2nd millennium, the 46th year of the 19th century, and the 7th year of the 1840s decade. As of the start of 1846, the Gregorian calendar was 12 days ahead of the Julian calendar, which remained in localized use until 1923.
Vulcan was a theorized planet that some pre-20th century astronomers thought existed in an orbit between Mercury and the Sun. Speculation about, and even purported observations of, intermercurial bodies or planets date back to the beginning of the 17th century. The case for their probable existence was bolstered by the support of the French mathematician Urbain Le Verrier, who had predicted the existence of Neptune using disturbances in the orbit of Uranus. By 1859 he had confirmed unexplained peculiarities in Mercury's orbit and predicted that they had to be the result of the gravitational influence of another unknown nearby planet or series of asteroids. A French amateur astronomer's report that he had observed an object passing in front of the Sun that same year led Le Verrier to announce that the long sought after planet, which he gave the name Vulcan, had been discovered at last.
Urbain Jean Joseph Le Verrier was a French astronomer and mathematician who specialized in celestial mechanics and is best known for predicting the existence and position of Neptune using only mathematics.
Johann Gottfried Galle was a German astronomer from Radis, Germany, at the Berlin Observatory who, on 23 September 1846, with the assistance of student Heinrich Louis d'Arrest, was the first person to view the planet Neptune and know what he was looking at. Urbain Le Verrier had predicted the existence and position of Neptune, and sent the coordinates to Galle, asking him to verify. Galle found Neptune in the same night he received Le Verrier's letter, within 1° of the predicted position. The discovery of Neptune is widely regarded as a dramatic validation of celestial mechanics, and is one of the most remarkable moments of 19th-century science.
The year 1866 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.
The year 1841 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.
The year 1842 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.
The year 1874 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.
The year 1811 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.
The year 1847 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.
The year 1873 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.
The year 1845 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.
The year 1856 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.
The year 1877 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.
The year 1868 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.
The year 1764 in science and technology involved some significant events.
James Challis FRS was an English clergyman, physicist and astronomer. Plumian Professor of Astronomy and Experimental Philosophy and the director of the Cambridge Observatory, he investigated a wide range of physical phenomena though made few lasting contributions outside astronomy. He is best remembered for his missed opportunity to discover the planet Neptune in 1846.
Heinrich Louis d'Arrest was a German astronomer, born in Berlin. His name is sometimes given as Heinrich Ludwig d'Arrest.
The planet Neptune was mathematically predicted before it was directly observed. With a prediction by Urbain Le Verrier, telescopic observations confirming the existence of a major planet were made on the night of September 23–24, 1846, at the Berlin Observatory, by astronomer Johann Gottfried Galle, working from Le Verrier's calculations. It was a sensational moment of 19th-century science, and dramatic confirmation of Newtonian gravitational theory. In François Arago's apt phrase, Le Verrier had discovered a planet "with the point of his pen".
Events from the year 1846 in Scotland.
