William Herschel
From Slackerpedia Galactica
William Herschel was a German English astronomer who discovered the planet Georgium Sidus Uranus in 1781. As a result, he was given the title of The King's Astronomer. Later, he discovered infrared radiation
by placing a thermometer at the red end of a beam of sunlight dispersed into a rainbow by a prism; it proved that light invisible to the eye existed and was capable of transmitting heat.
Herschel was the brother of Caroline Herschel, herself an accomplished and often-overlooked astronomer, and was also the father of another astronomer, John Herschel. He helped to found the Astronomical Society of London, which evolved into the Royal Astronomical Society.
