Portrait of William Herschel Courtesy of NASA/JPL, California Institute of Technology.

William Herschel was born in Germany. He moved to England and worked there most of his life. He lived between 1738-1822. He built powerful telescopes which let him observe the heavens with greater detail.

Herschel discovered the planet Uranus and studied what dying stars look like. He was also the first person to look beyond our own solar system and suggest that galaxies other than the Milky Way existed.