1997 Leverrier
Encyclopedia
1997 Leverrier is a main belt asteroid
. It was discovered by the Indiana Asteroid Program
and was named after Urbain Le Verrier, the French mathematician who, simultaneously with John Couch Adams
, predicted the existence and position of the planet Neptune
.
Asteroid
Asteroids are a class of small Solar System bodies in orbit around the Sun. They have also been called planetoids, especially the larger ones...
. It was discovered by the Indiana Asteroid Program
Indiana Asteroid Program
The Indiana Asteroid Program was a program of photographic asteroid observations made with a 10-inch f/6.5 Cooke triplet astrographic camera at Goethe Link Observatory near Brooklyn, Indiana. The program was initiated by Frank K. Edmondson of Indiana University in 1949 and continued until 1967...
and was named after Urbain Le Verrier, the French mathematician who, simultaneously with John Couch Adams
John Couch Adams
John Couch Adams was a British mathematician and astronomer. Adams was born in Laneast, near Launceston, Cornwall, and died in Cambridge. The Cornish name Couch is pronounced "cooch"....
, predicted the existence and position of the planet Neptune
Neptune
Neptune is the eighth and farthest planet from the Sun in the Solar System. Named for the Roman god of the sea, it is the fourth-largest planet by diameter and the third largest by mass. Neptune is 17 times the mass of Earth and is slightly more massive than its near-twin Uranus, which is 15 times...
.