Hubble spots Uranus' moons, rings

Baltimore Sun via San Francisco Chronicle ^ | December 23, 2005 | Frank D. Roylance

[neverdem]

Telescope confirms likelihood of lunar collisions in 500,000 years

Astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope say they have discovered two tiny new moons and two faint new rings spinning around the planet Uranus. The finds bring the current tallies for the remote blue world to more than two dozen moons and 13 rings.

The scientists said Hubble images have also confirmed instabilities in the Uranian system that could eventually lead to lunar collisions.

"The destruction and accumulation of moons and rings is very exciting," said Jack Lissauer of the NASA Ames Research Center at Moffett Field in Mountain View, a principal investigator on the project. "It's showing how this system is very rapidly evolving and showing that the processes which led to the formation of the planets (are) still ongoing today."

Following scientific tradition, the discoverers named the two new moons after Shakespearean characters. One is Mab, the fairy queen in "A Midsummer Night's Dream." The other is Cupid, the Roman god of love, who appears in one of the bard's lesser-known plays, "Timon of Athens."

Since many of Uranus' other moons were named for the likes of Juliet, Portia, Desdemona and Bianca, "we liked the idea of tiny Cupid orbiting among Shakespeare's greatest lovers," said the new moons' co-discoverer, Mark Showalter of the SETI Institute in Mountain View.

Uranus is the third-largest planet and the seventh from the sun. About 32,000 miles in diameter, it orbits 1.78 billion miles from the solar system's center, between the orbits of Saturn and Neptune.

It was discovered in 1781 by William Herschel, who named it Georgium Sidus (Georgian Planet) after Britain's King George III. The name Uranus, after an early Greek god of the heavens, didn't come into routine use until 1850.

The planet's five largest moons were discovered by Herschel and...

[the_daug]

As many say in San Francisco "Ummm! love, Uranus!"

[Lijahsbubbe]

rings around Uranus"

Shout it out?

[neverdem]

Finally, an explanation for Brown 25 that is understandable.

What's Brown 25?

[sayfer bullets]

"I have rings there, yes."

[Greek]

I'm putting the finishing touches on my new book, "Liberals Are From Uranus", about their origin from the big hot ball of green gas...

[beaver fever]

I thought i'd jump from Dr. Stangelove to Maxwell Smart. It a pretty logical extrapolation when you think about it.

[PatrickHenry]

My wish for you on this day is that Uranus always shines upon you.

[thoughtomator]

Ah, you're in hiding. I hear there are super-quiet keyboards out there...

[ovrtaxt]

I always thought it was an unfortunate name for a planet.

It's a planet? Must be huge.

[ALOHA RONNIE]

.

Good to know, my Freeper friend, Good to know.

.

[IamConservative]

Words and meanings aren't always what they seem:

asphalt is not a rectal problem, it is used to build roads.

asteroids also not a rectal problem, rather they are large bits of debris flying in space.

hemorrhoids on the other hand are a rectal condition and if George Bush declared a war on them, every liberal would want one and would have a bumper sticker declaring: "George Bush thinks I'm a perfect a-hole!"

[Irish_Thatcherite]

Same to you!

[RadioAstronomer]

Merry Christmas!

[ovrtaxt]

Major league big time!

[bert]

Aren't the moons of Uranus actually hemorrhoids

[FOG724]

Merry Christmas.

[jwh_Denver]

Many scientists and academics actually pronounce the name of the planet as 'your-UN-ess.'

Me thinks PC and snickering from the students got them to change the pronunciation.

[KevinDavis]

[curmudgeonII]

Good grief.
Another Uranus post.

[SunkenCiv]

self-ping
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=uranus