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Did Galileo discover Neptune?

JUL 16, 2009
Physics Today

SPACE.com : History books tell us that the planet Neptune was found in the mid-1800s after years of speculation and search.But in 1613, more than two centuries before Neptune was officially discovered, Galileo Galilei knew he had found it, according to a new theory by University of Melbourne physicist David Jamieson.It has long been known that Galileo observed Neptune, but it was thought that he discounted the object as a star and gave it no further thought. But it turns out Galileo may have known the “star” had moved in relation to other stars, Jamieson reveals. That sort of movement would have caught Galileo’s attention, since he knew that it was just the sort of thing planets did.

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