Abstract
WHEN Herschel, in April 1781, announced the appearance of a new body in the heavens, nowhere did the news create greater interest than in France, where Lalande, Mechain, Lemonnier, Laplace, and Bochart de Saron attempted to discover the orbit in which the body moved. Based on the supposition that it was a comet, the investigations all failed until Bochart de Saron, on May 8, 1781, announced that the so-called comet was in reality much farther from the sun than had been thought. This was the first glimmering of light on the perplexing subject which eventually led to the discovery that Herschels comet was a new planet, to which he assigned the name Georgium Sidus, but was afterwards designated Uranus.
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Bochart de Saron, 1730–1794. Nature 125, 95 (1930). https://doi.org/10.1038/125095a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/125095a0