# Herschel's Discovery: When Uranus Revealed Itself to Humanity

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This is Mike Voilo of Lexicon Valley.

And I'm Bob Garfield.

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Non astronomy tonight podcast.

This is your astronomy tonight podcast.

Good evening, stargazers.

On this day, March 12th,

we celebrate one of the most thrilling moments

in modern astronomy,

the discovery of Uranus,

on March 13th, 1781.

British Astronomers Sir William Hershel

was conducting a systematic survey of the night sky

from his garden in Bath, England

when he spotted something extraordinary.

Through his telescope,

he observed what he initially thought was a comet

moving slowly across the constellation Gemini.

But here's where it gets absolutely wild.

This wasn't a comet at all.

It was an entirely new planet,

previously unknown to humanity,

for all of recorded history.

Can you imagine?

For thousands of years, humans had mapped the heavens,

tracked the wandering stars they called planets,

and Uranus had been hiding right there in plain sight.

Hershel's discovery doubled the known radius

of our entire solar system overnight.

Suddenly, we realized our cosmic neighborhood

was far more expansive than anyone had ever dreamed.

What's even more remarkable

is that Uranus had likely been observed before.

Records show it appeared in historical star catalogs,

but it had always been mistaken for a regular star.

Hershel's methodical observation

and keen eye finally revealed the truth

about this distant ice giant.

If you want more details about this astronomical milestone

and catalyst other cosmic wonders,

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to the Astronomy Tonight podcast.

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