NHAS - Today in Astronomy History

1826

German astronomer Johann Bode dies. He published a celestial atlas, Uranographia, which contained almost 17,000 stars and 2,500 nebulae - the largest ever published at that time. It was also the last celestial atlas to depict artistic renditions of the constellations - later atlases reduced them to simple lines. Bode is most well known for popularizing the Titius-Bode Sequence, which later became known as Bode's Law. This simple mathematical sequence closely approximates the distance from the Sun to the planets. It indicates a body between Mars and Jupiter - where the asteroids lie, and it fits poorly with Neptune and Pluto, but its accuracy with the other planets is remarkable. It is not clear if Bode's Law is just coincidence or the expression of some yet-to-be-determined fundamental rule related to orbital resonances and planetary formation.