The Herschel is the heptomino illustrated above which is shaped like the astronomical symbol for Saturn. It was misnamed by early investigators of the game of life who mistakenly believed the shape to be similar to that of Uranus and hence named it after William Herschel (the discoverer of Uranus) instead of Christiaan Huygens (the first scientist to accurately describe Saturn). While the shape would more accurately be called the Huygens or J heptomino, the name "Herschel" is so firmly entrenched that it is too late to change.
Herschel
See also
Game of Life, HeptominoExplore with Wolfram|Alpha
Cite this as:
Weisstein, Eric W. "Herschel." From MathWorld--A Wolfram Web Resource. https://mathworld.wolfram.com/Herschel.html