Like so many women featured on this blog, Caroline Herschel has a laundry list of impressive accomplishments, yet her name often goes unrecognized. As a child, her world appeared to deteriorate around her – dominated by sickness and sexism. Until her brother introduced her to the night skies.
She was born in Hanover, Germany in the mid 1700s. Caroline’s growth was drastically stunted at a young age, as a consequence of typhus. She was given a meager education and her parents determined she would never marry – with her unusual looks, she was destined to be a scully maid.
Her brother, William Herschel, thought differently. He moved to England, taking her with him. She trained as an opera singer while he directed an orchestra.
William was interested in astronomy, gazing at the night sky as a hobby. She began assisting him in calculations, despite an education that neglected to instruct her in basic mathematics. She took it upon herself to learn.
In March of 1781, William discovered the planet Uranus. He gave Caroline partial credit, since she provided an immense amount of assistance.
This, of course, is not Caroline’s personal claim to fame. Caroline proceeded to become the first woman to discover a comet. She also discovered a number of nebulae such as Andromeda and Cetus. She spent her professional life cataloging stars, comets, and nebulae. The English government appointed her (alongside her brother) to study astronomy, becoming the first woman to receive the honor.
After her beloved brother died, she returned to Germany. In 1835, she and Mary Somerville (another genius female astronomer of their time) became honorary members of the Royal Astronomical Society, becoming the first women to do so.
Caroline was not deterred by the expectations set by her parents. She refused to conform to the idea that if a woman was not conventionally beautiful then she deserved to be hidden from the world. She embraced challenges, set her gaze for the stars, and excelled in a field that rarely acknowledges her accomplishments.
Untold Stories of Science 