Question

When Neptune was discovered it was found to have an average distance from the Sun of 39.0 astronomical unit. How did this fit in with Bode's law

Answer 1

Answer:

The Titius–Bode law (sometimes termed just Bode's law) is a formulaic prediction of spacing between planets in any given solar system. The formula suggests that, extending outward, each planet should be approximately twice as far from the Sun as the one before. The hypothesis correctly anticipated the orbits of Ceres (in the asteroid belt) and Uranus, but failed as a predictor of Neptune's orbit. It is named after Johann Daniel Titius and Johann Elert Bode.

Later work by Blagg and Richardson significantly corrected the original formula, and made predictions that were subsequently validated by new discoveries and observations. It is these re-formulations that offer "the best phenomenological representations of distances with which to investigate the theoretical significance of Titius-Bode type Laws".[1]

Answer 2

OKK

Bode’s law, also called Titius-Bode law, empirical rule giving the approximate distances of planets from the Sun. It was first announced in 1766 by the German astronomer Johann Daniel Titius but was popularized only from 1772 by his countryman Johann Elert Bode. Once suspected to have some significance regarding the formation of the solar system, Bode’s law is now generally regarded as a numerological curiosity with no known justification.

Key People: Johann Daniel Titius Johann Elert Bode

Related Topics: solar system measurement

One way to state Bode’s law begins with the sequence 0, 3, 6, 12, 24,…, in which each number after 3 is twice the previous one. To each number is added 4, and each result is divided by 10. Of the first seven answers—0.4, 0.7, 1.0, 1.6, 2.8, 5.2, 10.0—six of them (2.8 being the exception) closely approximate the distances from the Sun, expressed in astronomical units (AU; the mean Sun-Earth distance), of the six planets known when Titius devised the rule: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. At about 2.8 AU from the Sun, between Mars and Jupiter, the asteroids were later discovered, beginning with Ceres in 1801. The rule also was found to hold for the seventh planet, Uranus (discovered 1781), which lies at about 19 AU, but it failed to predict accurately the distance of the eighth planet, Neptune (1846), and that of Pluto, which was regarded as the ninth planet when it was discovered (1930). For a discussion of the roles that Bode’s law played in early asteroid discoveries and the search for planets in the outer solar system, see the articles asteroid and Neptune.