A Surprising Find

      

      Up until 1781 the solar system ended at Saturn. 
      The six planets had been known for thousands of years, and though Galileo 
      had discovered a few scraggly moons around Jupiter, no other major bodies 
      had been found in modern times. Certainly, people had argued about how the 
      planets moved, and some had been persecuted for the radical belief that 
      planets revolved around the Sun, until Copernicus's ideas were accepted. 
      But everyone agreed that six planets were all that existed in God's own 
      Universe.
      
 Then William Herschel, an amateur British astronomer, became the first 
        person in recorded history to discover a planet.
      
 Herschel 
        was a music teacher with an intense interest in astronomy. He turned his 
        house into a telescope factory, to his sister's dismay, and crafted instruments 
        superior to the telescopes at the Royal Observatory. Herschel devoted 
        much of his time to observing and charting the skies. In March, 1781, 
        he was in the middle of his second all-sky survey when he came upon what 
        he called "a curious either nebulous star or perhaps a comet." Its orbit, 
        however, was not that of a comet.
      
 It was Nevil Maskelyne, astronomer royal, who first suggested Herschel's 
        comet might be a planet. Mathematical proof of this was soon forthcoming, 
        and once the orbit was calculated, Herschel's discovery doubled the size 
        of the solar system. This was a crowning achievement for English astronomy, 
        and Herschel quickly turned professional, receiving a royal stipend so 
        he could devote his time to science.
      
 The discoverer had the honor of christening the planet, and Herschel 
        proposed Georgium Sidus (George's Star) in honor of King George III. However, 
        the French mathematician who had helped to calculate the orbit proposed 
        the name Herschel, while Johann Bode, editor of the Astronomical Yearbook 
        for Berlin, suggested Uranus to keep the planet names tied to mythology. 
        Georgium Sidus was quite unpopular outside of England, being named for 
        George III, whom the American colonists had declared a tyrant, and against 
        whom they had recently fought their war for independence.
      
 The name Uranus was immediately accepted in Germany, and eventually 
        found favor in France and the rest of the world. Yet for the next 60 years 
        in England, Herschel's discovery was referred to as the Georgian Planet.
      
 
      

        Next: Trouble in the Heavens
        
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