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Uranus, discovered by Herschel in 1781. In March 1781, during his search for double stars, Herschel noticed an object appearing as a disk. Herschel originally thought it was a comet or a stellar disc, which he believed he might actually resolve. [40] He reported the sighting to Nevil Maskelyne the Astronomer Royal. [41]
When William Herschel discovered Uranus in 1781, he at first named it Georgium Sidus (George's Star) after the King, who later funded the construction and maintenance of Herschel's 1785 40-foot telescope, which at the time was the biggest ever built.
The planet's first appearance in a work of fiction was in the pseudonymous "Monsieur Vivenair" ' s 1784 novel A Journey Lately Performed Through the Air, in an Aerostatic Globe, Commonly Called an Air Balloon, from this Terraqueous Globe to the Newly Discovered Planet, Georgium Sidus, a satire of the then-reigning British monarch George III and his court.
March 13 – William Herschel observes Uranus (although initially recording it as a comet). [1] March 20 – Pierre Méchain discovers dwarf galaxy NGC 5195. Charles Messier's final catalogue of Messier objects is published. Christian Mayer's catalogue of binary stars is published. [2]
In 1781, William Herschel was looking for binary stars in the constellation of Taurus when he observed what he thought was a new comet. Its orbit revealed that it was a new planet, Uranus, the first ever discovered telescopically. [20] Giuseppe Piazzi discovered Ceres in 1801, a small world between Mars and
Sir John Frederick William Herschel, 1st Baronet KH FRS (/ ˈ h ɜːr ʃ əl, ˈ h ɛər-/; [2] 7 March 1792 – 11 May 1871) [1] was an English polymath active as a mathematician, astronomer, chemist, inventor and experimental photographer who invented the blueprint [3] [4] [5] and did botanical work.
“I couldn’t remove a book because it has ideas we don’t like,” says Bette Davis’s character in a “Storm Center,” a 1956 drama about Communism and book banning.
The Titius–Bode law was regarded as interesting, but of no great importance until the discovery of Uranus in 1781, which happens to fit into the series nearly exactly. Based on this discovery, Bode urged his contemporaries to search for a fifth planet. Ceres, the largest object in the asteroid belt, was found at Bode's predicted position in 1801.