A new theory from an Australian researcher contends that master astronomer Galileo may have discovered Neptune, 234 years before its official discovery.
Img: Portrait of Galileo by Justus Sustermans. Credit: Public Domain
Professor David Jamieson, Head of the School of Physics has claimed that, buried its annotations in notebooks from 400 years ago, is evidence that Galileo had discovered the planet we now call Neptune.
Prof Jamieson has had his findings published in the journal Australian Physics and presented his theory at the 2009 July Lectures in Physics program at the University of Melbourne last week.
According to Galileo's notebooks, he had been following an unknown star during the years 1612 and 1613 while observing the moons of Jupiter.
It has been known for several decades that this unknown star was actually the planet Neptune," said Jamieson.
"Computer simulations show the precision of his observations revealing that Neptune would have looked just like a faint star almost exactly where Galileo observed it, he said.
Prof Jamieson bases much of his theory around the appearance of a mysterious "black dot" in the notebooks which would have corresponded to the correct position of Neptune.
I believe this dot could reveal he went back in his notes to record where he saw Neptune earlier when it was even closer to Jupiter but had not previously attracted his attention because of its unremarkable star-like appearance.
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