The Alexis Bouvard reference article from the English Wikipedia on 24-Apr-2004 (provided by Fixed Reference: snapshots of Wikipedia from wikipedia.org)

Alexis Bouvard

Alexis Bouvard (June 27, 1767 - June 7, 1843) was a French astronomer, born in Contamines, France.

Bouvard's achievements included the discovery of eight comets and the compilation of astronomical tabled of Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus. While the former two tables were eminently successful, the latter showed substantial discrepancies with subsequent observations. This led Bouvard to hypothesise the existence of an eighth planet responsible for the irregularities inUranus' orbit. The position of Neptune was subsequently calculated, independently, by John Couch Adams and Urbain Le Verrier after his death.

Bouvard was director of the Paris Observatory. He died in Paris.

This article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

This is the "Alexis Bouvard" reference article from the English Wikipedia. All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License. See also our Disclaimer.