I chose to research the discovery of Uranus by William Herschel in 1781. William Herschel’s motivation for the discovery was his search for life on other planets, nebulae and double stars. He had no clue there could be other planets. Through my research, I learned that the discovery was an accident and misnomer at first, and that many people in the scientific community were needed to come to the conclusion that it was in fact a planet.

William’s initial observation of the “nebula” was that its position moved a few nights later. He then figured it was a comet and sent his findings to superior astronomers for verification. Through more observations and calculations by many people, it was confirmed that it was in fact a planet, not a comet. (Ruskin,