William Herschel was an astronomer and telescope maker. It was through one of his telescopes, in March of 1781, that he discovered Uranus. Initially he believed, as other astronomers of his day, that Uranus was a comet. As he continued to observe the planet over the next four days he came to the conclusion that the planet did not have the same motion as a comet. After months of observation, he was able to chart its orbital path which would double the size of the known solar system at that time. Because of William Herschel’s discovery he opened up the heavens with his proof that there was much more to our solar system than was believed at that time. William Herschel discovered more that Uranus, he gave shape to the Milky Way, he discovered
Born in Germany as Friedrich Wilhelm Herschel, it wasn’t until his was 30 when he discovered what his true passion was. One night while he was looking at the night sky with his sister Caroline, he discovered Uranus and several of moons around other gas giants. While he was alive, he compiled a catalogue of 2,500 celestial objects that are still being used in today’s society. While in his early life he mainly studied music with his sister. His sister, Caroline was the first women to discover a comet, and the first women to get given a paid scientific position and to receive an honorary membership into the Royal Society. William Herschel will come up with the Theory of The Evolution of The Stars.
A English astronomer named William Herschel, had been using his 40-foot reflector telescope when he had made the discovery of Mimas on
Galileo created a telescope and turned it to the sky. As a result of his observations, our solar system was seen in a way that had never been imaginable before. He discovered that the Earth was not at the center of the solar system, but instead the earth revolved around the sun. Prior to this discovery, the church adopted the idea that the Earth was at the center of the solar system and everything revolved around it. This discovery altered our view of science and the church in large and small
Galileo(1564-1642) Made the telescope better and he used the telescope to observe planets, and he proves kepler’s theory, saw the imperfection of planets, and saw a storm on a planet also saw craters.
Among these people were Copernicus who believed the sun was at the center of the world and the earth, stars and planets revolved around it. Danish astronomer Brahe helped contribute to this idea by contributing a large mass of data about the universe that he was able to discover. His student Kepler kept his ideas going, as he formulated many laws of planetary motion. He said the orbits around the sun were elliptical, planets don’t move in a uniform speed and the time a planet completes its orbit is related to its distance from the sun. Meanwhile, Florentine Galileo decided to use experiments to find out what happened and not what should happen, and discovered that a uniform force makes a uniform acceleration as well as inertia laws, that an object will be in motion forever unless stopped by another force.
the heliocentric solar system. Johannes Kepler further modified the heliocentric system, by mathematically showing that the planets’ orbits are elliptical. With his invention of the telescope, Galileo made new observations about the solar system and found mathematical laws that described the movement of the planets. Later, Isaac Newton established a universal law of gravity. With the new scientific discoveries, the gap between religion and science increased. Science revolutionized the human though and its understanding of the universe.
Johannes Kepler (1571-1630) was a German astronomer who believed in the heliocentric theory. Kepler is a clear example of the narrow line that separated science and religion. Nonetheless, his ideas would show that things could be solved through reason alone. He believed that the harmony of the human soul could be found through numerical relationships that existed between planets. He found that the planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Uranus, Jupiter, and Saturn all revolved at different times. For example, the earth revolved around the sun in a year while Saturn revolved around the sun in fifty years. From this, Kepler found a mathematical ratio, nine to the two-thirds power, to explain this phenomenon. This was revolutionary to humanity’s place in the universe. People were shocked that the universe could be explained by math alone rather than religion. This went strongly
The discovery of Uranus by William Herschel in 1781 was a surprise to the professional astronomers of the day. William was an amateur astronomer and he made his own telescopes. He was looking at the night sky and he was looking at what others had noted was another star. With his better equipment, he could see that it was not a star but a planet. He wanted to name the planet after King George III of England. It was decided that is was going to be named after the Greek gods. It got the name of Uranus who was the father of Saturn according to mythology. It took a few years for that name to stick but when it did, the rest was history. William did get a paid as a professional astronomer after his discovery. That is good advice for all of us: Do
William Herschel didn’t start out his life and career interested in space and the stars. He started as a music teacher and musician. He was in his 30s before he started asking questions and looking at the stars. I think Herschel’s motivation came from wanting to learn more about the world around him and reading. While Herschel was still a musician, he read “Opticks by Robert Smith”1. In the books last few chapters, Smith talked about “Telescopial
The discovery of Uranus is quite interesting. William Herschel discovered Uranus one day while he was admiring the stars in the sky in 1781. He noticed that one of these stars happened to be quite different than the other ones. He began is research there. His motivation came from the difference in the star from the other ones. Plus, he had built his telescope himself and I am sure he needed many reasons to use it!
William Herschel was an astronomer who created the first telescope. He spent nine years surveying the sky and investigating double stars. His discoveries motivated him to create bigger and stronger telescopes. In 1779 Herschel set out to survey all of the stars in heaven down to the eighth magnitude. Using his 7 foot telescope he set out to isolate as many double stars as he could. It was during this research in March of 1781 when he realized that one celestial body he had observed was not a star, but a planet, Uranus. This was the first planet to be discovered since antiquity and Herschel became famous overnight.
William Herschel gained a passion for astronomy in his mid-thirties. Due to his determination to explore beyond our Milky Way, he further researched different telescopes, and he even started creating his own to find the best glass that would reflect the greatest light. Still an amateur, in March of 1791, Herschel found Uranus in the night sky. Astronomers before him had seen the planet, yet had dismissed it for a star. However, he knew it wasn’t a star (or a comet as he had first presumed), and after asking questions and researching the movement of the light, he realized that it was a planet.
Joseph Banks said: “By the observation of the most eminent Astronomers in Europe it appears that the new star, which I had the honour of pointing out to them in March 1781, is a Primary Planet of our Solar System" (4). So, because other astronomers chose to take a look at what William Herschel found and was saying that it was a comet. They chose to look at it, and came to the conclusion that it was a planet and not a comet. William Herschel ended up being known as the astronomer that found a new planet in our Solar system all because other astronomers decided to take a look at it and ended up coming to the conclusion that it was a planet and not a
On March 13, 1781 Astronomer, William Herschel was observing the sky with his telescope. While looking for binary stars, he came across, what looked like a fuzzy circle. At first he thought the fuzzy circle was a comet. But after a few nights of observing the disk he noticed that the comets movement was going against the movement of other stars, and the circle was moving to slowly to be a comet. William Herschel then realized that he was not looking at a comet, rather he was looking at a new planet. Herschel originally wanted to name the newly discovered planet after King George III, but British Astronomers decided to name it Uranus, the father of Saturn in Roman Mythology.
The discovery of the planet Uranus was created by William Herschel in the year 1781. Herschel was a musician, but at the age of 34, he became interested in astrology. He built his own telescope to observe the stars more clearly. While he was building the telescope he did research, including Robert Smith’s work. He read Smith’s journal of discoveries. He noticed that the star or the comet was appearing as a disk of some sort and he wondered why. As he studied further, he decided that there was more research needed to discover that the star was not a star. It was at this time when he discovered that a celestial body was not a comet or a star but a planet. This was an important discovery because it is another planet in our galaxy that would be