• Question: What year was the first planet in the solar system discovered

    Asked by padster to MarkF, Mark, Michael, Panos, Sarah on 17 Jun 2010 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Mark Fogg

      Mark Fogg answered on 15 Jun 2010:

      It was the first time a human looked at the sky and realised some of the stars actually moved, because only two of our eight planets (Pluto isn’t a planet) were officially discovered, the rest have always been visible with the naked eye. So the first discovered with a telescope was Uranus, discovered by Sir William Herschel in 1781.

    • Photo: Panos Soultanas

      Panos Soultanas answered on 16 Jun 2010:

      Hi padster,

      I think the first planet in our solar system which is not visible to the naked eye to be disovered was Uranus sometime in the 18th century.

    • Photo: Sarah Burl

      Sarah Burl answered on 16 Jun 2010:

      Earth would be the first to be discovered but it was not really discovered as we developed on it, not sure!

    • Photo: Mark Travis

      Mark Travis answered on 16 Jun 2010:

      I am have absolutely no background in astronomy I am afraid….. but looking it up, only Uranus, Neptune and Pluto have been officially discovered (and Pluto isn’t even considered a planet any more!). This is because all other planets in the solar system are visible to the naked eye, so have been named by people throughout history rather than ‘discovered’. The first planet discovered in modern times was Uranus by Sir William Herschel in 1781

    • Photo: Michael Loughlin

      Michael Loughlin answered on 17 Jun 2010:

      Not sure..i’ve looked on some sites and the first thing they say is “earth” Ho Ho.
      main answer seems to be amny we can see from earth so probably Venus as its the easiest to spot.
      I would think ancient times ( what a vague answer) but here is what others think

      http://nineplanets.org/venus.html

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