• Question: How did people discover the Planets of the solar system?

    Asked by Amelia to Anna, Stefan on 12 Nov 2014.
    • Photo: Stefan Lines

      Stefan Lines answered on 12 Nov 2014:

      Since Pluto is no longer classed as a ‘proper’ planet, only 2 planets in our Solar System have a noted discovery. That is Uranus by Sir William Herschel in 1781 and John Couch Adams in 1846. Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn are easy to see in the night sky at certain times of the year, and so people had been able to see them for years and years (to the dawn of man I suppose). Uranus and Neptune required some decent telescopes to see them!

      In terms of how they knew they were planets, planets are separated from the stars because they move differently in the sky, because of their orbit round the sun, instead of the stars which orbit around the galactic center.

      Good question!

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