Uranus

Uranus, father of Saturn and grandfather of Jupiter (seventh planet from the sun).



Astronomical(?) symbol from a sign for the metal platinum.

Uranus is the ancient Greek deity of the Heavens, the earliest supreme god.


Astrological Sign


• Uranus was the son and mate of Gaia, the father of Cronus (Saturn) and of the Cyclopes, and of the Titans (predecessors of the Olympian gods).
• Careful pronunciation may be necessary to avoid embarrassment. Say: YOOR uh nuhs or yoo RAY nuhs.
• Pluto was the god of the lower world in Greek mythology whose name meant riches or wealth.

A few scientific facts about Uranus:

• Uranus, the first planet discovered in modern times, was discovered by William Herschel while systematically searching the sky with his telescope on March 13, 1781.
• It had actually been seen many times before but ignored as simply another star (the earliest recorded sighting was in 1690 when John Flamsteed cataloged it as 34 Tauri).
• Herschel named it “the Georgium Sidus” (the Georgian Planet) in honor of his patron, the infamous (to Americans) King George III of England; others called it “Herschel”.
• The name Uranus was first proposed by Johann Elert Bode (1747-1826, German astronomer) in conformity with the other planetary names from classical mythology but it didn't come into common use until 1850.
• Herschel developed and improved a reflecting telescope and used it to discover the planet Uranus (March 13, 1781) and the moons of Uranus and of Saturn.
• Uranus is the third of the Gas Giant planets, and the first planet discovered in “modern” times (1781).
• It is barely visible from the Earth without a telescope, which explains why it was not known as a planet to the ancients, and why it had been observed various times after the telescope had been invented without the observers realizing that it was a planet and not a star.
• Uranus has five large moons: Miranda, Ariel, Umbriel, Titania, and Oberon.
• There are ten small satellites and at least nine rings.
• As with most of the planets, Uranus, too, has a very unique feature.
• It is the only planet that does not rotate perpendicularly to the ecliptic plane.
• This is to say that Uranus lies on its side, or tipped over, and its north pole points almost directly toward the sun for a half Uranian year, and its south pole points toward the Sun during the other half.
• This strange axis tilt produces some extreme seasonal effects.
• No one knows why Uranus is tilted in this way.
• Some have speculated that another planet-sized body might have altered the planet’s spin axis, but there is no direct evidence for such an occurrence.
• Until the Voyager made its probe in space Uranus was known to have five moons.
• These moons are Miranda, Oberon, Titania, Umbriel and Ariel; but, ten small new moons were discovered within the orbit of Miranda.
• Uranus moons were named from Shakespeare plays and a poem written by Alexander Pope.
• All five are approximately 50% denser than water showing that some type of ice is present.
• This ice is believed to be either methane, ammonia, frozen water, or other types of compounds.
• All of the moons are dark gray in color which leads scientists to believe they could be covered with carbon soot or graphite.

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