Editing History of astronomy (section)

===Completing the Solar System===
Outside of England, Newton's theory took some time to become established. [[René Descartes]]' [[Descartes' vortex theory|theory of vortices]] held sway in France, and [[Christiaan Huygens]], [[Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz]] and [[Jacques Cassini]] accepted only parts of Newton's system, preferring their own philosophies. [[Voltaire]] published a popular account in 1738.<ref>
{{cite book|first=Walter W.|last=Bryant|title=A History of Astronomy|date=1907|url=https://archive.org/stream/AHistoryOfAstronomy/Bryant-AHistoryOfAstronomy#page/n75|page=53}}
</ref> In 1748, the [[French Academy of Sciences]] offered a reward for solving the question of the perturbations of Jupiter and Saturn, which was eventually done by [[Euler]] and [[Lagrange]]. [[Laplace]] completed the theory of the planets, publishing from 1798 to 1825. The early origins of the [[nebular hypothesis|solar nebular model]] of planetary formation had begun.

[[Edmond Halley]] succeeded [[John Flamsteed]] as [[Astronomer Royal]] in England and succeeded in predicting the return of the [[Halley's comet|comet that bears his name]] in 1758. [[William Herschel]] found the first new planet, [[Uranus]], to be observed in modern times in 1781. The gap between the planets Mars and Jupiter disclosed by the [[Titius–Bode law]] was filled by the discovery of the [[asteroid]]s [[Ceres (dwarf planet)|Ceres]] and [[2 Pallas|Pallas]] in 1801 and 1802 with many more following.

At first, [[Colonial American Astronomy|astronomical thought in America]] was based on [[Aristotelian philosophy]],<ref>{{Citation|last=Brasch|first=Frederick|author-link=Frederick Edward Brasch|title=The Royal Society of London and its Influence upon Scientific Thought in the American Colonies|journal=The Scientific Monthly|date=October 1931|volume=33|issue=4|pages=338|postscript=.}}</ref> but interest in the new astronomy began to appear in [[Almanacs]] as early as 1659.<ref>{{Citation|last=Morison|first=Samuel Eliot|title=The Harvard School of Astronomy in the Seventeenth Century|journal=The New England Quarterly|date=March 1934|volume=7|issue=1|pages=3–24|postscript=.|doi=10.2307/359264|jstor=359264}}</ref>