Posted on 08/27/2015 11:24:07 AM PDT by BenLurkin
Uranus, which takes its name from the Greek God of the sky, is a gas giant and the seventh planet from our Sun. It is also the third largest planet in our Solar System, ranking behind Jupiter and Saturn. Like its fellow gas giants, it has many moons, a ring system, and is primarily composed of gases that are believed to surround a solid core.
Though it can be seen with the naked eye, the realization that Uranus is a planet was a relatively recent one. Though there are indications that it was spotted several times over the course of the past two thousands years, it was not until the 18th century that it was recognized for what it was. Since that time, the full-extent of the planet’s moons, ring system, and mysterious nature have come to be known.
Discovery and Naming: Like the five classic planets – Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn – Uranus can be seen without the aid of a telescope. But due to its dimness and slow orbit, ancient astronomers believed it to be a star. The earliest known observation was performed by Hipparchos, who recorded it as a star in his star catalog in 128 BCE – observations which were later included in Ptolemy’s Almagest.
The earliest definite sighting of Uranus took place in 1690 when English astronomer John Flamsteed – the first Astronomer Royal – spotted it at least six times and cataloged it as a star (34 Tauri). The French astronomer Pierre Lemonnier also observed it at least twelve times between the years of 1750 and 1769.
(Excerpt) Read more at universetoday.com ...
Robert Forward’s “Saturn Rukh” is about a mission to study the possibility of mining the planet for helium 3.
Science fiction with lots of good solid science about orbital and rotational velocities and escape velocities etc. Bob Forward was a real deal physicist.
Actually, Uranus moons are named after characters in Shakespeare plays. Puck is in “Midsummer Night’s Dream”.
thank you for the clarification..
I’m just going to sit back and enjoy this one.
I’ve got to read that book..
;’) Nice that a space-specialty website published such a boner.
Mining Saturn’s rings for water (Asimov short story) might be — might be — feasible, but it seems more likely that the only space resources likely to be economical and practical to exploit for the next few centuries anyway will be comets and asteroids.
don’t you mean “imbecile”?
The jokes just write themselves!
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