NatGeo news notes that Neptune was discovered one (Neptune) year ago today...
but the article includes this factoid:
Ironically, Galileo Galilei spotted Neptune more than 200 years earlier but wrongly assumed the planet was just a star.
"He observed it and he thought it moved relative to background stars, but it became cloudy and he was unable to observe it further," said Rocky Alvey, director of the Vanderbilt Dyer Observatory in Brentwood, Tennessee.
"If it hadn't been for clouds, Galileo may have been the discoverer of Neptune.
The planet Neptune, as seen from above its largest moon, Triton.
Illustration by Paul Hudson, National Geographic
interactive solar system HERE
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