离开太阳系前的最后一站(Last stop before leaving the solar system)

1846年9月23日，官方证实海王星存在于我们的太阳系。这一发现的功劳在国际天文学界引起了轩然大波，英国和法国的科学家都声称他们是第一个看到太阳系第八颗也是最遥远的行星的人。最终，和平得到了斡旋，这两个派系现在分享了荣誉。但是那些19世纪的天文学家使用的是伽利略在1612年首次记录的太阳系坐标。这位意大利博学者在200多年前用一台功能较弱的望远镜准确地绘制了海王星的位置图。伽利略把海王星误认为是一颗恒星——但他的座标促使许多跟随他的观星者朝着正确的方向寻找海王星。
原文：
Official confirmation of Neptune's presence in our solar system came on September 23, 1846. Credit for this discovery inspired a dust-up in the international astronomy community, as scientists from both Britain and France claimed they had been the first to see the 8th and most distant planet in our solar system. Eventually, peace was brokered, and credit is now shared between the two factions. But those 19th-century astronomers were using solar system coordinates first recorded by Galileo in 1612. The Italian polymath correctly mapped Neptune's position more than 200 years earlier using a less powerful telescope. Galileo mistook Neptune for a star – but his coordinates prompted many stargazers who came along after him to look in the correct direction and identify Neptune.
《© NASA/JPL》