Discovery of Uranus

What was discovered

The first planet discovered in history, found with a homemade reflecting telescope during a survey of the sky. It doubled the known size of the solar system.

Herschel took it for a comet; Flamsteed had catalogued it as a star in 1690.

What it led to

• Search for new planets
• Orbital anomalies that led to Neptune
• Herschel's large reflectors

Built on

• Law of universal gravitation1687

Made possible

• Discovery of Ceres1801
• Physical binary stars1803
• Discovery of Neptune by calculation1846
• Large-aperture reflecting telescopes

📄 Original publication

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