Uranus Experiments

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 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

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.

Their limited telescope technology had peaked and they were unable to see any further. With the new star being found, new telescopes created, it was opened up for more discoveries and open mindedness towards astrology. The discovery of Uranus sparked a renewed interest and search for more planets and other things in our solar system. This was the beginning of the “second phase” in the search for more planets. Most people agree that the discovery by William Herschel was a check point in discovery, with the planets before Uranus being the first phase of discovery and the ones after that being the second

The planet, which hasn't been officially named yet, was found by Brown and colleagues using the Samuel

1787 the year king George lll provides an annual salary to Caroline this was something she had always craved to have her own salary. Following William's death in 1822, Caroline returned home to Germany and continued to work on their catalog of nebulae (Space.com p 1). ‘Royal Astronomical Society’ presented her with a Gold Medal for her contributions in the field of astronomy. She was elected to an honorary membership at the ‘Royal Astronomical Society’ in 1835.She was also elected as a fellow at the ‘Royal Irish Academy’ in 1838.Herschel was awarded the Gold Medal for her contributions in science by the King of Prussia in 1846.Herschel discovered three new nebulae.(thefamouspeople.com p 1).

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

Uranus was the very first planet to be discovered since the beginning of recorded history. William Herschel was a man of music, but he was also very interested in astronomy and often studied books about it. His love for astronomy is what ultimately led him to the discovery of the planet.

The moons we know today were also discovered by Herschel: Titania and Oberon. After two years, in 1789 William also finished his largest telescope, 48 inches. This telescope made another Saturn’s sixth and sevenths moon; Enceladus and Mimas. Now moving on from the telescope, William tried out a basic experiment determining the temperature of different colors passing through a prism. He began to notice light that was beyond the color red. Higher then light and the visible spectrum. Using measurements and prior knowledge the light he was seeing is what we know today, Infrared radiation. The European Space Agency infrared space observatory was subsequently named for him.

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

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

Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz established another milestone, recording 51 Pegasi b, also known as Bellerophon, as the first established exoplanet in 1995. Located about 50 million light years away in the constellation Pegasus, Bellerophon is known as the first planet outside our solar system that orbits a star similar to our sun with the help of spectroscopy. Spectroscopy is described as the study of communication amongst matter and electromagnetic radiation. It used to consider visible light scattered according to its wavelength by a prism, but later the idea was developed to contain any contact with radiative energy as a function of its wavelength or frequency. Technological advances, most notably in high-resolution spectroscopy, led 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

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.