11. Caroline Herschel Was Behind Many of Her Brother’s Discoveries
William Herschel was one of the most significant and influential astronomers of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Born in Germany, he traveled with his sister, Caroline, to Britain to pursue a career in music and later astronomy; he served as the private court astronomer of King George III. Herschel built his own telescope, which allowed him to discover moons of Saturn and Uranus, as well as double stars and nebulae. He even found that Mars has individual seasons, at a time when the view of the universe was still very earth-centered.
Behind each of his discoveries was his sister. Caroline Herschel kept up William’s house, and during that time, she made many of the calculations that were necessary for his studies of the heavens. She was eventually recognized by the king as assistant to her brother and awarded a yearly stipend of £50. She went on to present a catalog of stars and nebulae that had been left out of British Catalogue, as well as errata contained within it. Her career continued well after her brother’s death, causing her to be recognized as an astronomer in her own right. Caroline Herschel was later awarded the gold star from the Astronomical Society for her revisions of the organization’s work.