We have another guest writer today at Sacred Space Astronomy. Andrew Kassenbaum is half of the team that produced the Society of Catholic Scientists’ very extensive webpage on Important Catholic Scientists of the Past. Here he provides us with some great information on an important part of the history of astronomy.
The discovery of Neptune is one of the greatest triumphs of nineteenth-century science. This is the story of the planet’s discovery and the Catholic faith of two astronomers who made the discovery possible.
Nineteenth-century astronomers stood in a long tradition of scientific advancement. The planets Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn were known to ancient astronomers, because they can be observed with the naked eye. With the development of the telescope in the seventeenth century, a new universe opened up to astronomers. Galileo famously discovered the phases of Venus and the four largest moons of Jupiter. Other astronomers of the Scientific Revolution developed laws of planetary motion, culminating in Isaac Newton’s work on universal gravitation.
In 1781, William Herschel identified Uranus as a planet. After the discovery of Uranus, the search for new planets continued with great enthusiasm. In 1800, a group of prominent astronomers founded the “Celestial Police” (the Vereinigte Astronomische Gesellschaft). Motivated in their search by a pattern of spacing between the known planets (the Titius–Bode law), the astronomers coordinated a search for a planet between Mars and Jupiter.
In 1801, the Theatine priest-astronomer, Giuseppe Piazzi, discovered Ceres in what is now known as the main asteroid belt. Initially thought to be a planet, Ceres is now classified as a dwarf planet. While additional astronomical objects — Vesta, Pallas, and Hygiea — were discovered in this region, astronomers would need to look elsewhere to discover a new planet.
Alexis Bouvard (1767–1843, on the left in the image above) was an eminent French astronomer who discovered several comets, contributed to Pierre-Simon Laplace’s magisterial work, Traité de mécanique céleste, and served as director of the Paris Observatory. In 1821, Bouvard published astronomical tables of Jupiter, Saturn, and Uranus. While his tables accurately predicted the orbits of Jupiter and Saturn, subsequent observations revealed irregularities in the predicted position of the orbit of Uranus. Bovard, an adherent of Newton’s work on universal gravitation, hypothesized that an unobserved planet was perturbing the orbit of Uranus.
In 1845, François Arago, director of the Paris Observatory, invited Urbain Le Verrier (1811–1877, on the right in the image above) to investigate the problem. After demonstrating that the perturbations of Uranus could not be explained by Jupiter and Saturn alone, Le Verrier published a work on August 31, 1846 that predicted the position and apparent diameter of the new planet.
Le Verrier sent his prediction to Johann Galle at the Berlin Observatory. Galle observed the planet on September 23, 1846, within 1° of its predicted location. A colleague stated that Le Verrier had found the planet “with the tip of his pen.” Arago praised the discovery:
In the eyes of all impartial men, this discovery will remain one of the most magnificent triumphs of theoretical astronomy, one of the glories of the Académie, and one of the most beautiful distinctions of our country.
Originally called “Le Verrier” by some scientists, the eighth planet is now named Neptune. In 1989, the Voyager 2 space probe imaged Neptune’s rings. One of the rings is named after Le Verrier.
Beyond being first-rate astronomers, Bouvard and Le Verrier were devoted Catholics. Bouvard received early formation from priests, including family relatives, who thought the future astronomer might enter into the priesthood. While Bouvard chose a life of science, a vibrant faith marked his life.
Alphonse Balleydier, in his Veillées du peuple (1868), states that Bouvard “found in the study of the works of the Creator the elements of that lively, ardent faith that fertilizes and exalts genius” and that he “faithfully observed all the precepts of the religion with which his mother had nursed him.” Bouvard’s “greatest happiness was to receive at his home those good priests from the mountains of Savoy,” where the astronomer was raised.
Balleydier ends his biography by stating that Bouvard offers a striking example of what can be achieved by the will of a man who seeks in science and religion, the principle of all science, the means to free himself from the humblest of servitudes, and to reach, through his own merits and the grace of God, the height of greatness.
Bouvard’s funeral was held at his parish in Paris, Saint Jacques Haut Pas Catholic Church.
Le Verrier also had an ardent faith. The priest, Barthélemy Aoust, who was a student and friend of Le Verrier, detailed the astronomer’s life of science and faith in his Le Verrier, sa vie, ses travaux (1877). Fr. Aoust states:
There is nothing particularly surprising that Le Verrier, like Newton, yielded to the attractive power of Christian doctrine; he was always a believer; a complete mind, he possessed that fullness of faith that admits of neither exceptions nor limits. The majesty of the Holy Scriptures controlled his soul, and he was not afraid to proclaim their sanctity in scientific gatherings.
In a time of controversy, Le Verrier courageously defended the papacy and stated that bishops are sources of “life and truth.” While running for office, Le Verrier stated that he desired for “religion to flourish.”
Fr. Aoust quotes Curé Elzéar Louis Méritan on Le Verrier’s Christian end: “Mr. Le Verrier remained faithful in his final illness to the religious principles that had marked his life.” During this period of suffering, Le Verrier received the Eucharist with faith and piety and venerated sacred objects.
Fr. Aoust ends his biography with this praise to the deceased Le Verrier:
Grateful France already counts you among its finest figures; and Religion, with its divine hand, has surrounded your brow with this crown of glory which it awards to its most faithful children.
Following Bouvard’s lead again, Le Verrier’s funeral was celebrated at Saint Jacques du Haut-Pas Catholic Church in Paris. Inspired by the lives of these two great Catholic scientists, we can rejoice in the belief that God is “maker of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible.” We have a wondrous universe to explore.
