Summary
The first scientific claim of an extrasolar planet dates back to 1855, a time when scientific exploration was still in its infancy. Captain William Stephen Jacob, the director of the Madras Observatory in Chennai, India, published his findings in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. Jacob's research focused on the binary star system 70 Ophiuchi, where he observed discrepancies in the stars' positions that he attributed to the gravitational influence of an unseen planet.
Jacob employed the astrometry method to detect this potential planet, a technique that involved meticulous observations through a telescope. His claim, however, lacked a mass estimate for the proposed planet, which he suggested could be around 40 Jupiter masses based on its orbital characteristics. Despite the innovative nature of his work, subsequent analyses deemed the claim dynamically unstable, and it was ultimately refuted.
The significance of Jacob's early claim lies not only in its historical context but also in the challenges he faced, including the limitations of observational technology and the nascent understanding of gravitational laws. His cautious approach to the findings, acknowledging the possibility of alternative explanations, stands in contrast to modern practices in scientific reporting. Jacob's endeavor highlights the importance of curiosity and the scientific method in the pursuit of knowledge, paving the way for future discoveries in astronomy.
Show Notes
In 1855, Captain William Stephen Jacob authored a paper in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society claiming that a planet likely existed in the binary star system 70 Ophiuchi. Although his claim ended being wrong, it's pretty remarkable that someone was even thinking about doing this with scientific methods at the time! Here we get into Jacob's claim, what went wrong, and what legacy this has left us with.::More about this Video::► Captain William S Jacob, "On Certain Anomalies Presented by the Binary Star 70 Ophiuchi": http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1855MNRAS..15..228J► Information compiled about Captain William Stephen Jacob and family by his living descendant, Kenneth Jacob: http://www.myjacobfamily.com/favershamjacobs/williamstephenjacob.htm► Thomas See, "Researches on the orbit of 70 Ophiuchi, and on a periodic perturbation in the motion of the system arising from the action of an unseen body": http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1896AJ.....16...17S► Forest Ray Moulton, "The limits of temporary stability of satellite motion, with an application to the question of the existence of an unseen body in the binary system 70 Ophiuchi": http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1899AJ.....20...33M► Outro music by Taylor Davis: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dl9kI1yQKZk::Playlists For Channel::Latest Cool Worlds Videos ► http://bit.ly/NewCoolWorldsCool Worlds Research ► http://bit.ly/CoolWorldsResearchGuest Videos ► http://bit.ly/CoolWorldsGuestsQ&A Videos ► http://bit.ly/CoolWorldsQAScience of TV/Film ► http://bit.ly/ScienceMovies::Follow us::SUBSCRIBE to the channel http://bit.ly/CoolWorldsSubscribeCool Worlds Lab http://coolworlds.astro.columbia.eduTwitter https://twitter.com/david_kippingInstagram https://www.instagram.com/cool.worldsTHANKS FOR WATCHING!! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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