The Georgian Star (Image: W W Norton and Co)
IN THIS very readable biography of 18th-century astronomer siblings and Herschel, attempts to pin down just what their greatest achievements were. The answer varies among biographers, but Lemonick makes a convincing case for William’s theoretical work on the evolution of stars as his greatest legacy, rather than his showier discovery of Uranus in 1781. Caroline, meanwhile, is praised for her role as William’s assistant.
Lemonick argues that modern astronomy’s methods of surveying, cataloguing and developing theories from evidence all originated with the Herschels and that for this…
