Discovery of Uranus Uranus was discovered by Sir William Herschel on March 13, 1781. His phenomenal detection was unintentional, just like most of today’s most famous discoveries. Herschel was looking for stars in his telescope and came across a blurry object that he assumed to be a comet. After a few nights of observation, it became apparent to Herschel that although the object was moving along with the background stars, its acceleration was way too slow to be classified as a comet. After many calculations, and years of study, he then concluded that this object was in fact a planet. This planet was further away from the sun than any other known planets, and was the first planet discovered with the use of a telescope. (Uranus is the 7th planet