William Lassell
✓ Source-basedstableEnglish merchant and astronomer (1799-1880)
A brewer by trade who ground his own telescope mirrors and found moons no one else could see - four of them, orbiting Neptune, Uranus, and Saturn.
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Awards 4
Scientists born in the 1790s 6
About this person
William Lassell was born on 18 June 1799 in England and made his living as a merchant, but his real work happened at night. He refined the design of the reflecting telescope, crafting optics sharp enough to pull faint objects from the dark. That precision paid off: he discovered four planetary satellites that had eluded every astronomer before him, circling the outer giants of the solar system. His finds expanded the known architecture of the planets at a time when each new moon redrew the map. He died on 5 October 1880, having seen farther than his tools were supposed to allow.
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