Who discovered the planet Uranus?
Short answer: Sir William Herschel.
Sir William Herschel
Long answer: Uranus is visible to the naked eye but unlike the planets closer to the Sun, it is very faint. As far as we know, it was never recognized as a planet until 1781.
German-born British astronomer Sir William Herschel was observing and mapping stars in March 1781, when he noticed an object that moved differently in relation to the surrounding stars. At first he thought it was a comet or unusual star, but after additional observations and calculations, he realized it was a planet in our Solar System.
Herschel wanted to name the planet after King George III, but this idea was never going to be accepted by the international astronomical community (especially the French). Instead, the name Uranus was agreed upon to follow the convention of naming planets after Greek/Roman gods.
Uranus was the first planet to be discovered since prehistoric times.
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