
When were each of the planets first discovered and who did it?
Uranus was discovered by Sir William Herschel in 1781. Herschel was probably the most famous astronomer of the 18th century. In addition to discovering the planet Uranus, he also observed …
Pluto: The First Dwarf Planet - NASA
Pluto was discovered in 1930 by astronomer Clyde Tombaugh. However, it was not until the year 2015 that we finally got a close-up look at the dwarf planet. After a nine-year journey, NASA's …
StarChild: The dwarf planet Ceres - NASA
Italian Giuseppe Piazzi discovered Ceres on January 1, 1801 while he was searching for a star. He first believed that he had discovered a comet, but he was not confident in his belief. By the …
Galileo Galilei - NASA
In 1581, Galileo was sent to the University of Pisa to study medicine. While a student at the university, Galileo discovered that he had a talent for mathematics. He was able to persuade …
StarChild: Ceres - NASA
Ceres was discovered on January 1, 1801 by Italian Giuseppe Piazzi. He discovered it while searching for a star. Ceres is named after the goddess of growing plants, harvest, and …
StarChild: The Dwarf Planet Eris - NASA
Eris, the largest known dwarf planet, was first detected in data collected in October of 2003. It was not identified until January of 2005. Mike Brown and his team of astronomers discovered what …
Why did Herschel name his planet Uranus? - NASA
Herschel did not name the planet Uranus, he called it "the Georgium Sidus" (the Georgian Planet) in honor of King George III of England. The name "Uranus" was first proposed by German …
Clyde Tombaugh - NASA
Clyde Tombaugh photographed 65% of the sky and spent thousands of hours examining photographs of the night sky. After ten months of very hard work, sometimes working through …
StarChild: Eris - NASA
Eris is the largest known dwarf planet in our solar system. It is a little larger than Pluto. Eris is about 2400 kilometers wide. Eris was first found by a team of astronomers at Palomar …
Urbain Jean Joseph Le Verrier - NASA
We now know this was incorrect. He thought the unusual motion of Uranus was due to another planet that had not yet been discovered. Le Verrier used math to calculate where to find the …