How were Uranus's rings discovered?
William Herschel was the first observer to mention that Uranus has a ring system in 1789. It was only a speculation since the astronomers that time could not observe any rings around Uranus. The discovery of the Uranian ring system was observed almost 200 years later by James Elliot, Edward, Dunham, and Douglas Mink in 1977. The discovery of the ring system of Uranus was only an accident when they grabbed the opportunity to observe the atmosphere of the planet using the occultation of the star SAO 158687. In their observations, they found out that the star suddenly disappeared for five ...
