When Uranus was discovered they realised another planet must exist (Neptune) because of the “behaviour” of Uranus was being caused by Neptune.
What are they talking about? What was Uranus doing that showed Neptune was out there?
Thanks.
In: Planetary Science
All objects with mass attract each other via gravity. The Sun has 99.9% of the mass in the Solar System, so *approximately* everything just orbits the Sun. But if you measure more precisely, you see that the planets also pull on each other. A planet that’s ahead of another one nearby is slowed down a bit, a planet that is behind another one is sped up a bit. If you measure the motion precisely enough then you can detect that effect, and if you see that effect without knowing a planet causing it then can conclude that some undiscovered planet must be somewhere nearby (“nearby” can still be over a billion kilometers here).
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