Who is Caroline Herschel and why is she Google's Doodle?

Today's Google Doodle marks the birth of an early female astronomer whose contributions to the field were celebrated during her lifetime but have since faded into obscurity.

Caroline Lucretia Herschel was born in Hanover, Germany, on 16 March 1750 to a Jewish army musician and his Christian wife.

A bout of typhus stunted her growth at the age of ten, making her "unmarriageable", and her mother believed she should be trained to go into domestic service rather than receive an education. However, Herschel's father allowed her to take part in her brothers' lessons.

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A talented singer, she emigrated to Bath to join her brother, William, a choirmaster and music teacher. He also had an interest in astronomy and Herschel joined him in his studies, becoming a respected astronomer in her own right. He became an expert telescope-builder and was eventually appointed king's astronomer to George III – Herschel's stipend as his assistant makes her the first woman in history to be a paid scientist.

Although her letters and diaries play down her role, which she described as merely a helper to her brother, Herschel worked independently before and after his death. She discovered several astronomical objects, including eight comets, and made the first sighting of Messier 110, a satellite of the Andromeda Galaxy.

After her brother's death in 1822, Herschel returned to Hanover and set about compiling a catalogue of existing nebulae for her nephew, John, an aspiring astronomer. For her work, she received a gold medal from the Royal Astronomical Society and was elected an honorary member in 1835 – both firsts for women.

Two hundred and sixty-six years after her birth, her name lives on in the 35P/Herschel-Rigollet comet, the moon crater C. Herschel and the asteroid 281 Lucretia.