Astronomy: Discovery Of Uranus

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.

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

In March of 1781 William Herschel, a musician and amateur astronomer discovered what would eventually be called “Uranus.” He discovered what he initially thought was a comet, while looking for what he called double stars. He ended up finding Uranus as it passed by one of the stars he was looking at. He recorded is in a journal, and after a few days looked for it again. He was able to see that it was moving and that it appeared to have an orbit. He contacted some friends of his that were astronomers and gave them the work that had done and wanted to them to explore it further than he could. They ended up finding the same thing and also classifying it as a comet, probably a comet called 1770, and congratulating him on his discovery. It wasn’t

The discovery of the Neptune planet was the result of various hypotheses, generated by different astronomers and mathematicians from 1781 to 1847. The article entitled “Accounting for Anomaly: The Discovery of Neptune” describes how Neptune was mathematically identified, before being directly observed, using the calculations of Urbain Le Verrier. He made the hypothesis that the Newtonian gravitation law could not fully explain the series of irregularities in the path of the Uranus planet. Le Verrier suggested the existence of another planet, after Uranus, that could affect its gravity. In 1845 his hypothesis followed a series of calculations to determine the nature and position of this unknown planet. By this calculations Le Verrier’s understood

Galileo was first to have the use of a telescope to observe celestial bodies, which helped him greatly in making new discoveries. He was able to not only study the motion of other planets, but was able to observe the satellites orbiting those planets. Galileo also discovered an enormous amount of stars by observing the Milky Way giving way to theorizing that there is more to our universe then what was previously thought. Galileo later found himself in trouble with the Catholic Church for publicly announcing his findings, which went against the Church’s held beliefs of the Earth’s place in our universe. Sadly, Galileo had to essentially denounce his findings and was forced to keep his discoveries private for the rest of his days.

During one of his nightly star gazing rituals, he discovered what he thought to be a new comet. He returned four days later to find the comet to have moved, thus increasing his certainty that it was. He shared his discovery with others, who despite having a hard time confirming his discoveries at first,

William Herschel was a musician and an astronomer. The motivation that drove William Herschel to the discovery of Uranus was his obsession with astronomy and the heavens. He charted the stars with a telescope he built himself, he then discovered a “comet” which really was the planet Uranus, but he initially didn’t realize it. He noticed the “comet” had moved and decided that his annotations on the position of the “comet” had been written down incorrectly. Herschel wanted to know the dimensions, and position of the “comet”. He carefully measured the location and diameter of the comet for some time and discovered its journey as parallax to “our side of the sun” on a daily basis. In 1782 Herschel finally called the comet his planet. The knowledge

Brahe portrayed the humanist ideal observation by revising previous theories and scientific tools throughout his career. Three discoveries attributed to Tycho Brahe include how the earth's position is viewed in the universe, mapping of celestial bodies, and his creation of accurate scientific instruments. Before the Renaissance, many scientists believed in the geocentric theory, or the belief that the earth was the center of the universe, and the sun, planets, and other stars revolved around earth. Tycho proved that the path of the comet of 1577 was not circular, but elongated, meaning that it would be impossible according to the geocentric theory. This discovery influenced the ways scientists viewed the location of planets and stars. Tycho viewed and observed a new star in the constellation Cassiopeia that lay beyond the moon and was in the realm of fixed stars. This discovery of the new star influenced the way scientists mapped all celestial bodies. Brahe was one of the first astronomers to realize the importance of error of instrumentation. He believed that some of the errors in the astronomical works of famous Renaissance astronomers were due to poor instrumentation. He was able to develop new instruments to plot his research that were massive improvements on the previous tables and tools used. His designs for new methods and instruments won him great fame. These discoveries continue to influence the way scientists view the universe

His sister was a huge part to the discovery she was a guide in a way. William Herschel was a musician for the army he became an amazing musician who learned the organ and wanted to learn music theory which then lead his to the telescope. He created his own mirrors after trial and error he was able to come up with one that was strong enough to see even farther into space. He asked questions about theory and music which lead to the mechanics of a telescope which then lead to more questions on how much light he could get in the scope. He was able to make mirrors big enough to get enough light to see even deeper into space. He notified one of his friends what he discovered and he pretty much helped him get famous by introducing him to a lot of

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 had a telescope and he loved searching the universe anything. He also had a sister that also searched the galaxies and enjoyed gazing into the night sky with a new perspective. On the night of Tuesday March 13, 1781 Herschel saw Uranus for the first time, even though he didn’t know it, yet. According to the article “Managing Expectations” written by Krupp he informs us that the first-time William saw Uranus he actually thought it was a comet. “Uranus was the first new planet to be found since antiquity, but at the outset it was not at all clear that a new world had been spotten. Herschel’s telescope provided the world’s best view of the new object, but even Herschel thought he had discovered a comet. (Krupp)” Herschel had to

William Herschel was a builder of telescopes. He made them better and sold them for profit. However, his motivation for making better telescopes was not profit, it was to answer his questions about space. When he looked into space through a telescope he could see that there was more that he wanted to see. It all started when he noticed a spot on Orion’s sword. William spent a lot of time improving telescopes so that he could see deeper into space. William Herschel discovered what we now know as the planet Uranus. He originally thought it was a comet. His quest to learn more about space lead him to make improvements on telescopes. He relied on the knowledge of others to help him do this. His brother often helped him with the mechanical

This was only the start of this international debate, Le Verrier had contacted the London Guardian, a local news group, about the accusations and stated that, “When he scrupled not to put into print that my calculations were not sufficient to command his confidence, did he not perceive that he was bringing discredit on his own scientific penetration, when he attacked a calculation … Among men of science of different countries, there ought to remain only that friendly rivalry, which, as leading to the benefit of science, so far from hindering, does but cement, the frank and brotherly friendship of those who cultivate it.” (Le Verrier, 1846a). To this, Herschel had responded saying that, “The prize (the discovery of Neptune) was by all rules accredited to Le Verrier since his research was documented and brought to light before Adams discovery”. Almost seeming to assure the people of France that Le Verrier was sure to be given credit to the discovery, however Herschel meant nothing of the sort. He himself wrote directly to the editor of The Guardian stating, “These Frenchmen fly at one like wildcats.” (Herschel, 1846a).

He asked about its speed compared to comets and planets. A comet with that type of brightness would need to be close to the Sun and move fast compared to planets. This object was moving, but too slow to be a comet. It was moving so slow that it would have to be farther from the Sun’s gravity, even farther

The bland aquamarine face of Uranus bears witness to the fact that Uranus is enshrouded in clouds. The planet appears to be blue-green because the atmosphere absorbs the, red wavelengths of the visible spectrum, . The uniformity of the planet's appearance confirms that the planet's atmosphere is composed almost solely of one element, methane gas. There is a preponderance of haze, composed of ethane and other hydrocarbon ices high in the stratosphere, and clouds of methane ice low in the troposphere. The cloud particles constantly recycle themselves, first creating then destroying the heaviest crystals. This is an indication that Uranus' atmosphere is still evolving from its formation out of the solar nebula. Because Uranus lies on its