School Encyclopedia. William Herschel and the discovery of the planet Uranus The further fate of William Herschel

William Herschel. Photo: gutenberg.org

233 years ago, on March 13, 1781, at number 19 New King Street in Bath, Somerset, English astronomer William Herschel discovered Uranus. The seventh planet of the solar system brought him fame and inscribed his name in history ..

Uranus

Before William Herschel, everyone who observed Uranus mistook it for a star. John Flamsteed in 1690 missed his chance, Pierre Lemonnier between 1750 and 1769 (and he, it should be noted, saw Uranus at least 12 times).

On March 13, 1781, using a telescope of his own design, Herschel discovered a celestial body. In his diary, he noted that he may have seen a comet. The following weeks showed that the object was moving across the sky. Then the scientist was even more established in his hypothesis.

Uranus and its satellite Ariel (white dot on the background of the planet). Photo: solarsystem.nasa.gov

However, a few months later, a Russian astronomer with Finnish-Swedish roots, Andrei Ivanovich Leksel, together with his Parisian colleague Pierre Laplace, calculated the orbit of a celestial body and proved that the discovered object is a planet.

The planet was at a distance of almost 3 billion kilometers from the Sun and exceeded the volume of the Earth by more than 60 times. Herschel suggested naming it Georgium Sidus - "Star of George" - in honor of the reigning King George III. He motivated this by the fact that in enlightened times it would be very strange to give planets names in honor of Greek gods or heroes. Moreover, according to Herschel, when talking about any event, the question always arises - when did it happen. And the name "George's Star" would definitely indicate the era.

However, outside of Britain, Herschel's proposed name did not gain popularity, and alternative versions soon appeared. Uranus has been proposed to be named after its discoverer, and versions of Neptune, George III's Neptune, and even Great Britain's Neptune have also been put forward. In 1850, the name familiar today was approved.

Moons of Uranus and Saturn

In the 18th century, five celestial bodies were discovered, not counting the comet. And all these achievements belong to Herschel.

Six years after the discovery of Uranus, Herschel discovered the first moons around the planet. On January 11, 1787, Titania and Oberon were discovered. True, they did not receive names immediately and for more than 60 years appeared as Uranus-II and Uranus-IV. Numbers I and III were Ariel and Umbriel, discovered by William Lassell in 1851. The names of the satellites were given by Herschel's son, John. Departing from the established tradition of naming celestial bodies in honor of the characters of Greek mythology, he chose magical characters - the queen and king of the fairies Titania and Oberon from the comedy "A Midsummer Night's Dream" by William Shakespeare and the sylph Ariel and the dwarf Umbriel from the poem "The Rape of the Lock" by Alexander Pope.
By the way, the satellites discovered by Herschel at that time were distinguishable only through his telescope.

Saturn's moon Mimas. Photo: nasa.gov

In 1789, with a difference of about 20 days, the astronomer discovered two satellites near Saturn: on August 28, he discovered Enceladus, and on September 17, Mimas. Initially - Saturn I and Saturn II, respectively. They were also named by John Herschel. But, unlike Uranus, Saturn already had previously discovered satellites. Therefore, the new names were associated with Greek mythology.

An interesting observation made by fans of the fantastic Star Wars saga is connected with Mimas. When viewed from a certain angle, the satellite resembles the Death Star battle station.

double stars

Starting out in astronomy, Herschel focused his observations on pairs of stars located too close to each other. Previously, it was believed that their rapprochement was accidental. But Herschel proved that this was not the case. Watching them through a telescope, he discovered that the stars revolve one around the other in an orbit, similar to the rotation of the planets.

This is how double stars were discovered - stars connected into one system by gravitational forces. About half of the stars in our galaxy are binary. Such a system can include black holes or neutron stars, so Herschel's discovery was of great importance for astrophysics.

Infrared radiation

In February 1800, Herschel was testing filters of various colors to observe sunspots. He noticed that some of them heat up more than others. Then, using a prism and a thermometer, he tried to determine the temperature of various parts of the visible spectrum. When moving from a purple stripe to a red one, the thermometer crept up.

Discovery of infrared radiation. Photo: nasa.gov

Herschel thought that where the visible part of the red spectrum ends, the thermometer will show room temperature. But, to his surprise, the temperature continued to rise. This was the beginning of the study of infrared radiation.

corals

Herschel left his mark not only in astronomy, but also in biology. Not much is known about this side of his work. However, Herschel was the first to prove that corals are not plants. Despite the fact that the medieval Asian scientist Al-Biruni attributed sponges and corals to the class of animals, noting their reaction to touch, they continued to be considered plants.

William Herschel determined using a microscope that corals have a cell membrane like animals.

Did you know…

Before getting carried away with astronomy and making his amazing discoveries, William Herschel was a musician. He was a regimental oboist in Hanover, then moved to England, where he got a job as an organist and music teacher. While studying music theory, Herschel became interested in mathematics, then optics, and finally astronomy.
He wrote a total of 24 symphonies for large and small orchestras, 12 oboe concertos, two organ concertos, six sonatas for violin, cello and harpsichord, 12 solo works for violin and bass continuo (bass general), 24 capriccios and one sonata for solo violin, one andante for two basset horns, oboes and bassoons.
His works are still performed by orchestras and can be listen.

Mariana Piskareva

William Herschel is an eminent English astronomer of German origin.

Born in Hannover (Germany) on November 15, 1738 in the family of a musician. Having received a home education and becoming, like his father, a musician, he entered the military band as an oboist and was sent to England as part of the regiment. Then he left military service and taught music for some time. He wrote 24 symphonies.

In 1789 he was elected a foreign honorary member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences. He died on August 23, 1822. On his gravestone it is written: "He broke the bolts of heaven."

Passion for astronomy

Gradually, studying composition and musical theory, Herschel came to mathematics, from mathematics to optics, and from optics to astronomy. He was by then 35 years old. Having no funds to buy a large telescope, in 1773 he began to grind mirrors himself and design telescopes and other optical instruments both for his own observations and for sale. The English King George III, himself a lover of astronomy, promoted Herschel to the rank of Royal Astronomer and provided him with funds to build a separate observatory. From 1782, Herschel and his sister Caroline, who assisted him, constantly worked on improving telescopes and astronomical observations. Herschel managed to convey his passion for astronomy to his family and friends. His sister Caroline, as already mentioned, helped him a lot in scientific work.

Having studied mathematics and astronomy under the guidance of her brother, Carolina independently processed his observations, prepared Herschel's catalogs of nebulae and star clusters for publication. Carolina discovered 8 new comets and 14 nebulae. She was the first female researcher to be accepted equally into the cohort of English and European astronomers who elected her an honorary member of the Royal Astronomical Society of London and the Royal Irish Academy. His brother also helped Alexander. Son John, born in 1792, already in childhood showed remarkable abilities. He became one of the most famous English astronomers and physicists of the 19th century. His popular book Essays on Astronomy was translated into Russian and played a big role in spreading astronomical knowledge in Russia.

Thanks to some technical improvements and an increase in the diameter of the mirrors, Herschel in 1789 produced the largest telescope of his time (focal length 12 meters, mirror diameter 49½ inches (126 cm)). Herschel's main work, however, relates to stellar astronomy.

Double star observations

Herschel observed binary stars to determine parallax(changes in the apparent position of the object relative to the distant background, depending on the position of the observer). As a result of this, he concluded the existence of stellar systems. Previously, it was believed that binary stars are only randomly located in the sky in such a way that when observed they are nearby. Herschel established that double and multiple stars exist as systems of stars physically connected to each other and revolving around a common center of gravity.

By 1802, Herschel had discovered more than 2,000 new nebulae and hundreds of new visual double stars. He also observed nebulae and comets and compiled their descriptions and catalogs (prepared for publication by his sister, Caroline Herschel).

Star scoop method

To study the structure of the star system, Herschel developed a new method based on statistical calculations of stars in different parts of the sky, called the "star scoop" method. Using this method, he established that all the observed stars make up a huge oblate system - the Milky Way (or Galaxy). He studied the structure of the Milky Way and came to the conclusion that the Milky Way has the shape of a disk, and the solar system is part of the Milky Way. Herschel considered the study of the structure of our Galaxy to be his main task. He proved that the Sun with all its planets moves towards the constellation Hercules. Studying the spectrum of the Sun, Herschel discovered its infrared invisible part - this happened in 1800. The discovery was made during the following experiment: splitting sunlight with a prism, Herschel placed a thermometer just beyond the red band of the visible spectrum and showed that the temperature rises, and, therefore, by The thermometer acts on light radiation that is inaccessible to the human eye.

Discovery of the planet Uranus

Uranus- the seventh planet in distance from the Sun, the third in diameter and the fourth in mass. Herschel discovered it in 1781. It was named after the Greek sky god Uranus, father of Kronos (Saturn in Roman mythology) and grandfather of Zeus.

Uranus was the first planet discovered in modern times and with the help of a telescope. William Herschel announced the discovery of Uranus on March 13, 1781. Even though Uranus is sometimes visible to the naked eye, earlier observers were unaware that it was a planet due to its dimness and slow motion.

Astronomical discoveries of Herschel

• Planet Uranus On March 13, 1781, Herschel dedicated this discovery to King George III and named the discovered planet in his honor - "George's Star", but the name did not come into use.
• Satellites of Saturn Mimas and Enceladus in 1789
• Moons of Uranus Titania and Oberon.
• Introduced the term "asteroid".
• Defined the movement of the solar system towards the constellation Hercules.
• opened infrared radiation.
• installed, that galaxies are collected in huge "layers", among which he singled out a supercluster in the constellation Coma Berenices. He was the first to express the idea of ​​cosmic evolution under the influence of gravity.
  

The first game of the Second Team Tournament.

Members

Ilya Ganchukov

Hasmik Garyaka

Mikhail Karpuk

• Ilya Ganchukov, laboratory assistant from Novosibirsk
• Hasmik Garyaka, programmer from Yerevan
• Mikhail Karpuk, lawyer from Minsk

Game progress

First round

Topics:

• US Presidents
• Tigers
• Musical instruments
• Red and white
• Press

US Presidents (400)

Composing his epitaph, Thomas Jefferson dismissed this fact, apparently considering it unimportant.

Answered by Asmik.
Correct answer: Fact of the US Presidency

Tigers (500)

In memory of the battle (500)

Cat in a bag. Topic: In memory of the battle. The cast-iron obelisk on the Red Hill of the Kulikovo Field, designed by Alexander Bryullov and approved by Nicholas I, ended just like that. Miraculously in the 1930s the monument survived. What is crowned with this column?

Ilya plays. The bet is 500.
Correct answer: Church onion with a cross

Uranus (400)

This offensive operation of the three fronts of the Soviet troops was codenamed "Uranus".

Ilya answers.
Correct answer: Stalingradskaya

Tigers (400)

He was born in the Khumbu region of Nepal and his autobiography is titled "Tiger of the Snows".

Ilya answers.
Correct answer: Tenzing Norgay

Tigers (300)

In 2010, the Tiger Summit was held in St. Petersburg with the participation of delegations from 13 countries - according to their number.

Michael answers.
Correct answer: Countries where tigers live

Tigers (200)

This subspecies of the tiger is the most numerous. Zoologists number up to two thousand individuals.

Ilya answers.
Correct answer: Bengali (Indian)

Uranus (300)

According to the ancient Greeks, she was Uranus both mother and wife.

Michael answers.
Correct answer: Gaia

Musical instruments (300)

Musical instruments (300)

In the century before last, Calioppe - just such an organ - shocked not so much listeners as spectators.

Ilya answers.
Correct answer: Steam

Tiger (100)

Merging with it, the Tigris forms the Shatt al-Arab river.

Ilya answers.
Correct answer: Euphrates

Uranus (200)

In addition to gold and diamonds, the subsoil of this republic hides more than half of Russia's uranium reserves.

Answered by Asmik.
Correct answer: Yakutia

US Presidents (300)

Lyndon Johnson loved giving away electric toothbrushes. So, the author of this work received as many as 12 brushes from Johnson! True, for 10 years.

Ilya answers.
Correct answer: "Biography of Johnson"

Uranus (100)

Even the discoverer of uranium, William Herschel, suggested that the planet has this "decoration", seen only in the 20th century.

Michael answers.
Correct answer: Rings

Musical instruments (500)

The violinophone, invented by Johann Stroch, is a variation of this instrument, but not a body, but a metal bell is used to amplify the sound.

Michael answers.
Correct answer: Violin

Musical instruments (200)

In the symphonic fairy tale "Peter and the Wolf" his theme is played by three French horns.

Ilya answers.
Correct answer: Wolf

US Presidents (200)

This favorite animal of Harry Truman grazed on the lawn in front of the White House.

Answered by Asmik.
Correct answer: Goat

Press (500)

Auction. The reader of the French newspaper Sapper's Candle dated February 29, 2012 will only know the answer to the published crossword puzzle on that day.

Ilya plays. Rate - 1 300.
Correct answer: 29.02.2016

US Presidents (100)

This World War II warlord was also praised by the Americans for his recipe for an exquisite vegetable soup with nasturtium stalks.

Michael answers.
Correct answer: Dwight David Eisenhower

Red and white (300)

Auction. Painting by Kazemir Malevich "Picturesque Realism of a Peasant Woman in Two Dimensions" looks exactly like this.

Michael plays. Rate - 1 300.
Correct answer: Red square on a white background

Red and white (400)

In October 2010, the seventh studio album of this Moldovan rock band "White Wine/Red Wine" was released.

Ilya answers.
Correct answer: Zdob si Zdub

Press (400)

Excerpts from The Quiet Flows the Don were the first in the West to be published by this French newspaper.

Answered by Asmik.
Correct answer: "Humanite"

Press (500)

The sky is calling! (500)

Cat in a bag. Topic: The sky is calling!. On October 19, 1901, 28-year-old Brazilian Alberto Santos Dumont flew this from Saint-Claude Park to the Eiffel Tower and back in half an hour. He became famous all over the world and won a prize of 100 thousand francs.

Michael plays. The bet is 500.
Correct answer: Airship

Red and white (200)

According to the visiting Englishman Fletcher, at the end of the 16th century, Muscovites, trying to hide this, “whiten and blush so much that everyone can notice.”

Ilya answers.
Correct answer: Bad complexion

Press (200)

Answered by Asmik.
Correct answer: "Youth"

Press (100)

The album, released for the 180th anniversary of this newspaper, told about its origin and development from Pushkin to the present day.

Answered by Asmik.
Correct answer: "Literary newspaper"

Musical instruments (100)

In March 1945, during an attack on the rear headquarters of the Nazis, British soldier David Kirkpatrick supported the attackers with sounds.

Michael answers.
Correct answer: Bagpipes

Red and white (100)

This striped caramel is most often wrapped in a red and white wrapper.

Answered by Asmik.
Correct answer: "Cancer necks"

Round result

• Ilya - 4 300
• Hasmik - 1 600
• Michael - 3 200

Second round

Topics:

• Painters
• "Something with something"
• We must, Fedya!
• Questions from…
• In the bag
• …wow…

…wow… (1,000)

Vegetables-fruits (200)

Cat in a bag. Topic: Vegetables fruits. Jim Bryson of Ontario and his 12-year-old daughter Kelsey raised exactly that together. The fruit of family labor pulled almost 824 kg.

Michael plays. Rate - 200.
Correct answer: Pumpkin

…wow… (600)

In this novel by Yuri German, Nikolai Slupsky, the head physician of the city hospital of Sestroretsk, became the prototype of Dr. Ustimenko.

Ilya answers.
Player response: "The Case of Kukotsky".
Correct answer: "Dear my man"

…wow… (800)

In this adaptation of Shakespeare, Keanu Reeves played Don Juan and almost received the Golden Raspberry for his righteous work.

Answered by Asmik.
Correct answer: "Much ado about nothing"

Case in the hat (800)

Creativity (200)

Cat in a bag. Topic: Creation. According to legend, while working on Dante's Inferno, William Blake got so carried away that he spent the last shilling in the house on this. Blake's portrait in the National Gallery also features this subject.

Ilya plays. Rate - 200.
Player response: Candle.
Correct answer: Pencil

We must, Fedya! (1,000)

The soloist refused to sing on the eve of the performance, and the entrepreneur invited the 17-year-old soloist Fedya Chaliapin to sing Stolnik in this opera by Manyushko.
Michael answers.
Correct answer: "Pebble"

Artists (600)

Artists (600)

On February 10, 1802, William Turner became the youngest artist to be awarded this title, but the painter was never knighted.

Michael answers.
Correct answer: Academician

Artists (800)

In his youth, Ivan Kramskoy worked in the best photographic studios in St. Petersburg, doing this particular job.

Answered by Asmik.
Correct answer: retouching

"Something with Something" (1,000)

Auction. Since the 18th century, the Black Forest has been famous for these home appliances throughout Europe.

Played by Hasmik. The rate is 3,200.
Player response: Plates with flowers.
Correct answer: Cuckoo-clock

Questions from… (1,000)

Questions from Alexander Shumakevich

Questions are asked by Shumakevich A.F., captain of the II rank of the reserve. On the 72nd day of sailing forward, looking ahead, Rodriguez de Trian shouted this word and went down in history forever.

Ilya answers.
Correct answer: Earth

Questions from… (800)

Peter I in 1716 introduced this title for the graduates of the Naval Academy. This title lasted 201 years.

Answered by Asmik.
Correct answer: Midshipman

Questions from… (600)

Sailors who rounded Cape Horn wore this item, which protects against rheumatism and weakening of vision.

Ilya answers.
Correct answer: Gold earring in right ear

Questions from… (400)

This item was nailed to the mast of Horatio Nelson's flagship, and the Victoria was lucky.

Ilya answers.
Correct answer: Horseshoe

Questions from… (200)

Its traditional difference is a pipe.

Ilya answers.
Correct answer: Boatswain

Artists (200)

In 1914, 44-year-old Henri Matisse was denied this request: his health failed.

Answered by Asmik.
Correct answer: Join the army as a volunteer

Artists (1,000)

At 42, he became the People's Artist of the USSR; later, his personal museum was opened near the Kremlin, and there are countless awards and prizes.

Answered by Asmik.
Player response: Ilya Glazunov.
Correct answer: Shilov

We must, Fedya! (800)

This department head of NIICHAVO demanded from Cristobal Junta a bottle of amontillado from the “Toland stocks” in exchange for a lured laboratory assistant.

Answered by Asmik.
Correct answer: Kivrin

"Something with Something" (800)

Robert Zemeckis was afraid that in Colombia someone from the film group might really be kidnapped, and he shot this film in Mexico.

Michael answers.
Correct answer: "Romancing the Stone"

Artists (400)

Jean-Louis David handed this picture to the Convention with the words: “The people called:“ David, grab your brushes and take revenge ”... I fulfilled the will of the people.”

Michael answers.
Correct answer: "Death of Marat"

…wow… (400)

The name of this African state is translated from the Ewe language as "the land lying beyond the lagoons."

Michael answers.
Correct answer: Togo

"Something with Something" (400)

In Holland, such coffee is called "wrong" - "coffee ferkeerd".

Answered by Asmik.
Correct answer: Coffee with milk

Case in the hat (600)

For a visit to Professor Higgins, she wore a hat with three ostrich feathers: orange, sky blue and red.

Ilya answers.
Correct answer: Eliza Doolittle

We must, Fedya! (600)

Auction. Borya demanded from Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich a divorce from his beloved wife Irina, justifying their demands with this.

Ilya plays. The rate is 2,200.
Player response: They were related.
Correct answer: The wife of Fyodor Ivanovich was barren

Case in the hat (400)

Case in the hat (400)

Selecting for Eurovision, this team performed the song "Long-long birch bark and how to make an aishon out of it", that is, a national headdress.

Ilya answers.
Correct answer: "Buranovskiye grandmothers"

We must, Fedya! (400)

In this film, the young actor Fedya Stukov, at the behest of the director, played the girl Irishka.

Answered by Asmik.
Correct answer: "Relatives"

"Something with Something" (200)

At the sight of a graying brunette, these spices are recalled.

Ilya answers.
Correct answer: Pepper with salt

Case in the hat (200)

The red square biretta appeared in the 15th century and is now the main symbol of their vestments.

Michael answers.
Correct answer: Cardinals

We must, Fedya! (200)

“The word of the king is harder than crackers. If he sends for a bear - you go for a bear, but where to go - you have to, Fedya! The author of the story...

Answered by Asmik.
Correct answer: Leonid Filatov

…wow… (200)

In a letter to his wife, Pushkin declared the Summer Garden his own.

Answered by Asmik.
Correct answer: Garden

Round result

• Ilya - 4 700
• Hasmik - 2 000
• Michael - 6 800

Third round

Topics:

• Heraldry
• That's the movie!
• finds
• pyramids
• Trees
• Author!

Author! (900)

Don Quixote, Hamlet, King Lear.

Ilya answers.
Player response: Shakespeare.
Answered by Asmik.
Player response: Kolotozov.
Correct answer: Kozintsev.

Author! (600)

"Don Quixote", "La Bayadere", "Goldfish".

Answered by Asmik.
Correct answer: Minkus.

Author! (1 200)

"Don Quixote", "Laundress", "The Miller, His Son and the Donkey".

Answered by Asmik.
Player response: Picasso.
Correct answer: Honore Daumier.

Author! (1 500)

Don Quixote, Werther, Manon.

Answered by Asmik.
Player response: Puccini.
Correct answer: Jules Massenet.

Author! (300)

"Don Quixote", "Running", "Ivan Vasilyevich".

Ilya answers.
Correct answer: Bulgakov

Heraldry (1 500)

Auction. In 1953, this New Zealander was awarded a coat of arms with Tibetan prayer drums and snow-white mountain peaks.

Ilya plays. Rate - 1 600.
Correct answer: Edmund Percival Hillary

Heraldry (1 200)

On the coat of arms of the Sakhalin village of Nogliki, a fern leaf means rich vegetation, fish - fishing, drops - just that.

Ilya answers.
Correct answer: Oil

Pyramids (1 200)

Pyramids (1 200)

In this capital, Sir Norman Foster created the Pyramid of Peace specifically for holding congresses of leaders of world and traditional religions.

Answered by Asmik.
Correct answer: Astana

Trees (1 500)

Ivan Kovtunenko developed a method for growing seedlings of this spruce from North American seeds. And he received the Stalin Prize.

Answered by Asmik.
Correct answer: Blue spruce

Finds (1 500)

Lewis Carroll (1,500)

Cat in a bag. Topic: Lewis Carroll. Little Englishmen actually kept domestic dormouse in these objects filled with hay. That's where the March Hare and the Hatter stuff the dormouse.

Michael plays. Rate - 1 500.
Correct answer: In the teapot

Heraldry (900)

The coat of arms of the Evenki district of the Krasnoyarsk Territory is based on the image of this instrument.

Answered by Asmik.
Player response: Organ.
Correct answer: Shaman tambourine

Heraldry (900)

These flowers on the coat of arms of the Queen of England until 1801 meant a claim to the French kingdom.

Ilya answers.
Correct answer: lilies

Finds (1 200)

Haydn's half-forgotten opera "An Unexpected Meeting" was staged at the Chamber Musical Theater thanks to this discovery in the Saltykov-Shchedrin Library.

Answered by Asmik.
Correct answer: score

Trees (1 200)

Heavy rain during a walk drove Louis XVI and this lady-in-waiting under an oak tree. The oak did not save from the rain, but the romance began.

Answered by Asmik.
Correct answer: Louise de Lavalier

That's the movie! (1 200)

Of poets, most of the films were made about Byron, of composers - about Franz Liszt, of scientists - about this Austrian.

Michael answers.
Player response: Einstein.
Answered by Asmik.
Correct answer: Freud

That's the movie! (900)

In 1954, he received four Oscars at once for four different films: an animated film, a short film and two documentaries.

Michael answers.
Correct answer: Disney

Finds (900)

Auction. By the centenary of the battle of Borodino, a circular was sent around the empire with an order to find them.

Played by Hasmik. Rate - 5 600.
Correct answer: Those participants in the Battle of Borodino who are still alive

Trees (900)

She was brought from afar To the land where the feather grasses rustle How difficult it was for her to get used to the fire of the Volgograd land," Lyudmila Zykina sang of her.

Answered by Asmik.
Correct answer: Birch

Pyramids (900)

If the base of the pyramid is a regular polygon, and the vertex is projected into the center of the base, then the pyramid is just that.

Answered by Asmik.
Correct answer: Correct

That's the movie! (600)

In this capacity, King Vidor worked for no less than 67 years!

Ilya answers.
Player response: Film critic.
Correct answer: Producer

Trees (600)

Pies (900)

In the evergreen cornelian capitate, red spherical seedlings resemble a garden berry, hence the second name of this tree.

Ilya answers.
Player response: raspberries.
Correct answer: strawberries

Finds (600)

Recently, scientists have discovered reserves of this "mineral" in Africa, especially in Libya, Algeria and Chad.

Ilya answers.
Correct answer: Fresh water

Pyramids (600)

The Egyptian pyramid in the poem of the same name by Yevgeny Yevtushenko did not agree with this building.

Ilya answers.
Correct answer: Bratsk HPP

That's the movie! (300)

This role was played by Theodore Roosevelt, Fidel Castro, Vladimir Zhirinovsky…

Ilya answers.
Correct answer: Himself

Finds (300)

In addition to 200,000 rubles, there was this in the wallet, and the Saratov schoolboy Vanya Sokov returned the find to the owner.

Ilya answers.
Player response: The passport.
Correct answer: Business card with address and phone number

Pyramids (300)

The village of Pyramiden in Western Svalbard, where these hard workers lived, has now become a "ghost town".

Ilya answers.
Correct answer: Miners

Trees (300)

The chief of the Cherokee tribe was renamed George Hess, and his Indian name was given to the tree.

Ilya answers.
Player response: Geronimo.
Correct answer: Sequoia

Round result

• Ilya - 7 500
• Hasmik - 13 300
• Michael - 8 000

Final round

Topic: Patrons

Every year this philanthropist allocated 20,000 rubles; for 35 years, scientists received 55 full prizes of five thousand rubles and 220 half. Not so long ago in Yekaterinburg the tradition was renewed.

Elijah's answer: Demidov
Rate - 5 500.

Asmik's answer: Mammoths
The rate is 3,300.

Michael's answer: Demidov
Rate - 2 100.

Correct answer: Demidov

Outcome of the game

• Ilya - 13 000
• Hasmik - 10 000
• Michael - 10 100

Ilya Ganchukov is declared the winner of the game.

William Herschel was born into a family of musicians. It was music that prompted him to explore the stars. The scientist made his way from musical theory to mathematics, then to optics and, finally, to astronomy.

Frederick William Herschel was born in the German administrative district of Hanover on November 15, 1738. His parents were Jews, immigrants from Moravia. They converted to Christianity and left their homeland for religious reasons.

William had 9 sisters and brothers. His father, Isaac Herschel, was an oboist in the Hanoverian Guard. As a child, the boy received a versatile, but not systematized education. He showed an aptitude for philosophy, astronomy and mathematics.

At the age of 14, the young man enters the regimental band. After 3 years, he was transferred from the Duchy of Brunswick-Luneburg to England. And after 2 years, he leaves the military service for the sake of music.

In the beginning, he rewrites the notes to "make ends meet". Then he became a music teacher and organist in Halifax. After moving to the city of Bath, he holds the position of manager of public concerts.

In 1788, William Herschel marries Mary Pitt. After 4 years, a son is born to them, who from an early age shows a penchant for music and the exact sciences inherited from his father.

Passion for astronomy

While teaching students to play instruments, Herschel soon finds that music lessons are too easy and do not satisfy him. He was engaged in philosophy, natural science, and in 1773 became interested in optics and astronomy. William acquires the writings of Smith and Ferguson. Their publications - "The Complete System of Optics" and "Astronomy" - became his reference books.

In the same year, he first observed the stars through a telescope. However, Herschel does not have the funds to purchase his own. So he decides to create it himself.

In the same 1773, he cast a mirror for his telescope, creates a reflector with a focal length of over 1.5 m. He is supported by his brother Alexander and sister Caroline. Together they make mirrors from tin and copper alloys in a smelting furnace and polish them.

However, William Herschel took up the first full-fledged observations only in 1775. At the same time, he continued to earn a living by teaching music and performing at concerts.

First discovery

The event that determined the further fate of Herschel as a scientist occurred on March 13, 1781. In the evening, while studying objects near the constellation Gemini, he noticed that one of the stars was larger than the others. It had a pronounced disk and moved along the ecliptic. The researcher suggested that it was a comet and reported the observation to other astronomers.

Academician of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences Andrey Leksel and Academician of the Parisian Academy of Sciences Pierre Simon Laplace became interested in the discovery. Having carried out calculations, they proved that the discovered object was not a comet, but an unknown planet located beyond Saturn. Its dimensions exceeded the volume of the Earth by 60 times, and the distance to the Sun was almost 3 billion km.

The discovered object was later named . He not only expanded the concept of size by 2 times, but also became the first discovered planet. Prior to this, the remaining 5 were easily observed in the sky since ancient times.

Recognition and awards

In December 1781, William Herschel was awarded the Copley Medal for his discovery and became a Fellow of the Royal Society of London. He is also awarded the degree of Doctor of Oxford. After 8 years, he was elected a corresponding member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences.

In 1782, King George III appointed Herschel Astronomer Royal with an annual salary of £200. In addition, the monarch provides him with funds to build his own observatory in Slow.

William Herschel continues to work on the creation of telescopes. He significantly improves them: increases the diameters of the mirrors, achieves greater image brightness. In 1789, he created a telescope unique in size: with a tube 12 m long and a mirror 122 cm in diameter. Only in 1845, an even larger telescope was built by the Irish astronomer Parsons: the tube was 18 m long and the mirror diameter was 183 cm.

(1738-1822) - founder of stellar astronomy, foreign honorary member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences (1789). With the help of the telescopes he made, he made systematic surveys of the starry sky, studied star clusters, double stars, and nebulae. He built the first model of the Galaxy, established the motion of the Sun in space, discovered Uranus (1781), its 2 satellites (1787) and 2 satellites of Saturn (1789).

The first attempts to penetrate deeper into the mystery of the structure of the stellar Universe through careful observations with the help of the most powerful telescopes are associated with the name of the astronomer William Herschel.

Friedrich Wilhelm Herschel was born on November 15, 1738 in Hannover in the family of an oboist of the Hanoverian guard Isaac Herschel and Anna Ilse Moritzen. The Herschel Protestants were from Moravia, which they left, probably for religious reasons. The atmosphere of the parental home can be called intellectual. "Biographical Note", Wilhelm's diary and letters, memoirs of his younger sister Caroline introduce us to Herschel's house and world of interests and show the truly titanic work and dedication that created an outstanding observer and researcher.

Herschel received an extensive but unsystematic education. Classes in mathematics, astronomy, philosophy revealed his ability to exact sciences. But, besides this, Wilhelm had great musical abilities and at the age of fourteen he joined the regimental band as a musician. In 1757, after four years of military service, he left for England, where his brother Yakov, bandmaster of the Hanoverian regiment, had moved somewhat earlier.

Not having a penny in his pocket, Wilhelm, renamed William in England, took up copying notes in London. In 1766 he moved to Bath, where he soon achieved great fame as a performer, conductor and music teacher. But such a life could not fully satisfy him. Herschel's interest in natural science and philosophy, constant self-education led him to a passion for astronomy. “What a pity that music is not a hundred times more difficult than science, I love activity and I need something to do,” he wrote to his brother.

In 1773, William Herschel acquired a number of works on optics and astronomy. Smith's Complete System of Optics and Ferguson's Astronomy became his reference books. In the same year, he first looked at the sky in a small telescope with a focal length of about 75 cm, but observations with such a low magnification did not satisfy the researcher. Since there were no funds to buy a faster telescope, he decided to make it himself.

Having bought the necessary tools and blanks, William Herschel independently cast and polished a mirror for his first telescope. Having overcome great difficulties, Herschel in the same year 1773 made a reflector with a focal length of more than 1.5 m. , since stopping the grinding process worsened the quality of the mirror. The work turned out to be not only difficult, but also dangerous, once a melting furnace exploded while making a blank for a mirror.

Sister Caroline and brother Alexander were William's faithful and patient helpers in this difficult work. Diligence and enthusiasm gave excellent results. The mirrors made by William Herschel from an alloy of copper and tin were of excellent quality and gave perfectly round images of the stars.

As the famous American astronomer C. Whitney writes, "from 1773 to 1782, the Herschels were busy turning from professional musicians into professional astronomers."

In 1775, William Herschel began his first "survey of the sky". At this time, he still continued to earn his living as a musician, but astronomical observations became his true passion. Between music lessons, he made mirrors for telescopes, gave concerts in the evenings, and spent his nights observing the stars. For this purpose, Herschel proposed an original new method of "star scoops", that is, counting the number of stars in certain areas of the sky.

On March 13, 1781, while observing, Herschel noticed something unusual: “Between ten and eleven in the evening, when I was studying faint stars in the neighborhood of H Gemini, I noticed one that looked larger than the rest. Surprised by its unusual size, I compared it to H Gemini and a small star in the square between the constellations Auriga and Gemini and found that it was considerably larger than either of them. I suspected it was a comet." The object had a pronounced disk and moved along the ecliptic. Having informed other astronomers about the discovery of the "comet", Herschel continued to observe it.

A few months later, two well-known scientists - Academician of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences D.I. Leksel and Academician of the Paris Academy of Sciences Pierre Simon Laplace, having calculated the orbit of an open celestial object, proved that Herschel had discovered a planet that was located beyond Saturn. The planet, later named Uranus, was almost 3 billion km away from the Sun and exceeded the volume of the Earth by more than 60 times. For the first time in the history of science, a new planet was discovered, since the previously known five planets have been observed in the sky for centuries. The discovery of Uranus pushed the boundaries of the solar system more than twice and brought glory to its discoverer.

Nine months after the discovery of Uranus, on December 7, 1781, William Herschel was elected a member of the Royal Astronomical Society of London, he was awarded a doctorate from Oxford University and a gold medal from the Royal Society of London (in 1789, the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences elected him an honorary member).

The discovery of Uranus determined Herschel's career. King George III, himself an amateur astronomer and patron of the Hanoverians, appointed him in 1782 "Astronomer Royal" with an annual salary of 200 pounds. The King also provided him with funds to build a separate observatory at Slow, near Windsor. Here William Herschel set about astronomical observations with youthful fervor and unusual constancy. According to the biographer Arago, he left the observatory only to present the results of his vigilant labors to the royal society.

V. Herschel continued to pay the main attention to the improvement of telescopes. He completely discarded the second small mirror, which had been used until then, and thereby significantly increased the brightness of the image. Gradually Herschel increased the diameters of the mirrors. Its peak was the giant telescope built in 1789 for that time, with a pipe 12 m long and a mirror 122 cm in diameter. This telescope remained unsurpassed until 1845, when the Irish astronomer W. Parsons built an even larger telescope - almost 18 meters long with a mirror diameter 183 cm.

Using the latest telescope, William Herschel discovered two moons of Uranus and two moons of Saturn. Thus, the discovery of several celestial bodies in the solar system is associated with the name of Herschel. But this is not the main significance of his remarkable activity.

Even before Herschel, several dozen binary stars were known, but such stellar pairs were considered as random encounters of their constituent stars, and it was not assumed that binary stars were widespread in the Universe. Herschel carefully explored the different parts of the sky over the years and discovered over 400 double stars. He investigated the distances between the components (in angular measures), their color and apparent brilliance. In some cases, stars that were previously considered binary turned out to be triple and quadruple (multiple stars). Herschel came to the conclusion that double and multiple stars are systems of stars physically connected to each other and, as he was convinced, revolving around a common center of gravity, according to the law of universal gravitation.

William Herschel was the first astronomer in the history of science to systematically study binary stars. Since ancient times, the bright nebula in the constellation of Orion, as well as the nebula in the constellation Andromeda, visible to the naked eye, have been known. But only in the 18th century, as telescopes improved, many nebulae were discovered. Immanuel Kant and Lambert believed that nebulae are entire star systems, other Milky Ways, but remote at colossal distances at which individual stars cannot be distinguished.

V. Herschel did a great job discovering and studying new nebulae. He used the ever-increasing power of his telescopes for this. Suffice it to say that the catalogs compiled by him on the basis of his observations, the first of which appeared in 1786, include about 2500 nebulae. Herschel's task, however, was not simply to find nebulae, but to reveal their nature. In his powerful telescopes, many nebulae were clearly divided into individual stars and thus turned out to be star clusters far from the solar system. In some cases, the nebula turned out to be a star surrounded by a nebulous ring. But other nebulae were not separated into stars, even with the help of the most powerful - 122-cm telescope.

At first, Herschel concluded that almost all nebulae are actually collections of stars, and the most distant of them will also decompose into stars in the future - when observed with even more powerful telescopes. At the same time, he admitted that some of these nebulae are not star clusters within the Milky Way, but independent star systems. Further research forced William Herschel to deepen and supplement his views. The world of nebulae turned out to be more complex and diverse than previously could be expected.

Continuing to tirelessly observe and reflect, Herschel recognized that many of the observed nebulae cannot be decomposed into stars at all, since they consist of much more rarefied matter (“luminous liquid,” as Herschel thought) than stars. Thus, Herschel came to the conclusion that nebulous matter, like stars, is widespread in the universe. Naturally, the question arose about the role of this substance in the Universe, about whether it is the material from which stars arose. Back in 1755, Immanuel Kant put forward a hypothesis about the formation of entire star systems from the originally existing scattered matter. Herschel boldly suggested that different types of indecomposable nebulae represent different stages of star formation. By compacting the nebula, either a whole cluster of stars or a single star is gradually formed from it, which at the beginning of its existence is still surrounded by a nebulous shell. If Kant believed that all the stars of the Milky Way were once formed at the same time, then Herschel was the first to suggest that the stars have different ages and the formation of stars continues uninterruptedly and occurs in our time.

This idea of ​​William Herschel was later forgotten, and the erroneous opinion about the simultaneous origin of all stars in the distant past dominated science for a long time. Only in the second half of the 20th century, on the basis of the enormous successes of astronomy and, in particular, the work of Soviet scientists, was a difference in the age of stars established. Entire classes of stars have been studied, indisputably existing for a few million years, in contrast to other stars, whose age is determined by billions of years. Herschel's views on the nature of nebulae have been confirmed in general terms by modern science, which has established that gas and dust nebulae are widespread in our and other galaxies. The nature of these nebulae turned out to be even more complex than Herschel could have imagined.

At the same time, William Herschel, even at the end of his life, was convinced that some nebulae are distant star systems, which will eventually be decomposed into separate stars. And in this he, like Kant and Lambert, turned out to be right.

As already mentioned, in the 18th century, the proper motion of many stars was discovered. In 1783, Herschel managed to convincingly prove by calculations that our solar system is also moving towards the constellation Hercules.

But William Herschel considered his main task to be the elucidation of the structure of the star system of the Milky Way, or our Galaxy, its shape and size. He did this for several decades. At that time, he had no data at his disposal either about the distances between the stars, or about their placement in space, or about their size and luminosity. Not having these data, Herschel assumed that all stars have the same luminosity and are evenly distributed in space, so that the distances between them are more or less the same, and the Sun is located near the center of the system. At the same time, Herschel did not know the phenomenon of absorption of light in world space and believed, in addition, that even the most distant stars of the Milky Way were accessible to his giant telescope. With this telescope, he counted the stars in different parts of the sky and tried to determine how far our star system extended in one direction or another.

But Herschel's initial assumptions were wrong. Now it is known that stars differ from each other in luminosity and that they are unevenly distributed in the Galaxy. The galaxy is so large that its boundaries were not accessible even to Herschel's giant telescope, so he could not come to the correct conclusions about the shape of the Galaxy and the position of the Sun in it, and he greatly underestimated its size.

William Herschel also dealt with other issues of astronomy. By the way, he unraveled the complex nature of solar radiation and concluded that it consists of light, heat and chemical rays (radiation that is not perceived by the eye). In other words, Herschel anticipated the discovery of rays that go beyond the normal solar spectrum - infrared and ultraviolet.

Herschel began his scientific career as a modest amateur who had the opportunity to devote only his free time to astronomy. Teaching music has long been a source of livelihood for him. Only in old age did he acquire material opportunities for doing science.

The astronomer combined the features of a real scientist and a wonderful person. Herschel was a skilled observer, an energetic researcher, a deep and purposeful thinker. At the very zenith of his fame, he remained a charming, kind and simple person, which is characteristic of deep and noble natures.

William Herschel managed to convey his passion for astronomy to his family and friends. His sister Carolina helped him a lot in scientific work. Having studied mathematics and astronomy under the guidance of her brother, Carolina independently processed his observations, prepared Herschel's catalogs of nebulae and star clusters for publication. Devoting a lot of time to observations, Carolina discovered 8 new comets and 14 nebulae. She was the first female researcher to be accepted on an equal footing into a cohort of English and European astronomers who elected her an honorary member of the Royal Astronomical Society of London and the Royal Irish Academy.