Caroline Herschel Research Paper

Caroline Lucretia Herschel was born on March 16, 1750 in Hanover, Germany. She was one of 10 children of Anna Ilse Moritzen and Issak Herschel. Caroline didn’t get a great education, but she learned how to read and write. However, she didn’t receive a formal degree. When Caroline was ten years old, she was diagnosed with the Typhus disease. Caroline’s family was very big in music, and one of her older brothers, William, later moved to England to pursue a music career. When Caroline was 22, she moved to England to be with her brother and to have him train her to become a singer. She was trained to sing soprano and was allowed to live with him, but she became his housekeeper. William has had a passion for astronomy, and when he was in his mid-30s, he devoted more time in it. Caroline wanted to follow her brother’s passion in astronomy. She helped him produce reflecting telescopes, and it was her job to grind and polish the mirrors. She wanted to pursue this passion so much that she mastered algebra and formulas for conversion and calculation to observe stars and measure astronomical distances. In 1781, William discovered Uranus, just by simply surveying some stars. His big discovery knighted him and he was
appointed court astronomer to King George III. This gave Caroline a new decision to make: to continue her singing career or to “server” her brother as his scientific assistant. She chose to go with him and was appointed by the court, which came with a salary of 50 pounds per year. This was the first salary that any woman had ever received for scientific work. With all the help that she’s given her brother and all of the research and studies she’s done, Caroline was ready to begin her own astronomical work. She specialized in searching for comets. In 1783, William and Caroline started a 20 year survey of the sky at night, studying it be sections. Eventually, they made a list of 2,500 new nebulae and star clusters, which was later enlarged and named the “New General Catalogue.” Caroline started working on her own, searching the night sky for new information. Caroline discovered an open cluster on February 26, 1783, known today as NGC 2360.
She later discovered 14 new nebulae, including one known as NGC 205, which is the companion to the Andromeda Galaxy. A few years later on August 1, 1786, Caroline found a strange objects traveling slowly through the sky. After observing it another night, she decided to alert other astronomers to announce the information of its path for them to study it. The object turns out to be a comet, which makes Caroline Herschel the first woman to discover a comet! Throughout the years between 1786 and 1797, she discovered a total of 8 comets, all named after her. In addition, Caroline cross-indexed the existing star catalog created by John Flamsteed, submitting more than 550 new
stars. When her brother William died in 1822, Caroline returned back home in Hanover and continued her catalog for nebulae. She was awarded many honors, such as receiving the God Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1828.