In 1785, William Herschel proposed that the solar system was at the center of the Milky Way Galaxy. How did he reach this conclusion?
A) Like the ancient Greeks and many of their successors for over a thousand years, Herschel based his conclusion on the philosophical importance of Earth in the cosmos.
B) Herschel's observations suggested that the stars in the Milky Way Galaxy were distributed uniformly around Earth.
C) Herschel measured distances to globular clusters and determined that they were distributed uniformly around Earth.
D) Herschel determined that Cepheid variable stars in the Milky Way Galaxy were distributed uniformly around Earth.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

Herschel's conclusion was based on his observations of the distribution of stars in the Milky Way, which he interpreted as being uniformly distributed around the Earth, leading him to mistakenly propose that the solar system was at the center of the galaxy.

In 1785, William Herschel Proposed That the Solar System Was