On August 1, 1782, Caroline Herschel—sister of William
Herschel, an astronomer who discovered Uranus the year
before—discovered a comet after spotting it through a
telescope. This was the first comet discovery credited
to a woman.
William and Caroline Herschel
Herschel, a German-born British woman, began her work
in astronomy through helping her brother.
As William’s assistant, Caroline Herschel executed many
of the calculations from his studies.
In 1782, prior to discovering the comet, she had been
recording the positions of new sky objects in her own
logbook.
