William Herschel and the Discovery of the Planet Uranus
Overview
William Herschel (1738-1822) discovered the planet Uranus in 1781. It was the first planet discovered since the beginning of recorded history. The discovery of Uranus brought Herschel much fame, which enabled him to carry out his unconventional astronomical research. His discovery of Uranus, to a small degree, even consoled England for its loss of the 13 colonies in the American Revolutionary War. Perhaps most importantly, the discovery of Uranus opened up a new phase in the discovery of the planets of our solar system.
Background
The discovery of the planets in our solar system can be said to have two distinct phases. The discovery of the planet Uranus marks the boundary between these two phases. The first phase began before recorded history. In this phase the only known planets were the five that were visible to the naked eye. Nearly every culture had knowledge of the planets we call Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. These five objects were first called planets by the Greeks; planet was the Greek word for wanderer. Planets were called wanderers because, unlike the stars (which do not appear to change their positions relative to one another), the planets were seen to move (or change position) relative to the fixed stars.
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