The English mathematical astronomer John Couch Adams (1819-1892) was a principal figure in the discovery of the planet Neptune.

Born at Laneast, Cornwall, on June 5, 1819, to a farm family of modest station, John Couch Adams early demonstrated a remarkable capacity for mathematics. He was admitted to Cambridge University on a scholarship in the fall of 1839, and when he graduated in 1843 he was appointed to the faculty, spending virtually the rest of his life there.

The chain of events in which Adams figured so prominently began long before his birth. In 1781 William Herschel had discovered the planet Uranus. From then on, astronomers had sought to account for the movement of Uranus according to the rules which governed the motions of the other planets. By Adams's day it was apparent that their attempts had failed. Although a new orbit had been computed as late as 1820, the refractory planet was already...