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x THE STARRY HEAVENS 397 
and their satellites revolve nearly in one 
plane, the satellites of Uranus are nearly at 
right angles, indicating the presence of some 
local and exceptional influence. 
NEPTUNE 
The study of Uranus soon showed that it 
followed a path which could not be accounted 
for by the influence of the Sun and the other 
then known planets. It was suspected, there- 
fore, that this was due to some other body 
not yet discovered. To calculate where 
such a body must be so as to account for 
these irregularities was a most complex and 
difficult, and might have seemed almost a 
hopeless, task. It was, however, solved al- 
most simultaneously and independently by 
Adams in this country, and Le Verrier in 
France. 
Neptune, so far as we yet know the out- 
most of our companions, is 35,000 miles in 
diameter, and its mean distance from the Sun 
is 2,780,000,000 miles. 
