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Uranus: Facts And History!
From its discovery in the sky, to the unique tilt that sets it apart, and more! Join me as we show you Uranus Facts and History! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe for more videos:https://www.youtube.com/c/InsaneCuriosity?sub_confirmation=1? Business Enquiries: lorenzovareseaziendale@gmail.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 9. Its Discovery Before diving into the various facts about Uranus and how it quite possibly became what it is today. We need to first understand how it got discovered, because it's a tale that is rather familiar when it comes to the outer planets. You see, Uranus had been observed on many occasions before its recognition as a planet, but it was generally mistaken for a star. Many other planets and dwarf planet had similar misidentifications because of their distance from the sun and the Earth and their slow orbits (more on that later). Possibly the earliest known observation was by Hipparchos, who in 128 BC might have recorded it as a star for his star catalogue that was later incorporated into Ptolemy's Almagest. The earliest definite sighting was in 1690, when John Flamsteed observed it at least six times, cataloguing it as 34 Tauri. The French astronomer Pierre Charles Le Monnier observed Uranus at least twelve times between 1750 and 1769, including on four consecutive nights. Oh, but it didn't stop there though, far from it. Sir William Herschel observed Uranus on March 13th, 1781 from the garden of his house in Bath, Somerset, England (which is now the Herschel Museum of Astronomy), and initially reported it (in April 1781) as a comet. With a telescope, Herschel "engaged in a series of observations on the parallax of the fixed stars." This is infinitely ironic because of the fame of Herschel and his discoveries of other major celestial objects in the sky. But most of all, he kept asserting it was a comet to everyone that mattered, although one time he did LIKEN it to a planet. "The power I had on when I first saw the comet was 227. From experience I know that the diameters of the fixed stars are not proportionally magnified with higher powers, as planets are; therefore I now put the powers at 460 and 932, and found that the diameter of the comet increased in proportion to the power, as it ought to be, on the supposition of its not being a fixed star, while the diameters of the stars to which I compared it were not increased in the same ratio. Moreover, the comet being magnified much beyond what its light would admit of, appeared hazy and ill-defined with these great powers, while the stars preserved that lustre and distinctness which from many thousand observations I knew they would retain. The sequel has shown that my surmises were well-founded, this proving to be the Comet we have lately observed." Oops. Things only got worse later on. Herschel notified the Astronomer Royal Nevil Maskelyne of his discovery and received this flummoxed reply from him: "I don't know what to call it. It is as likely to be a regular planet moving in an orbit nearly circular to the sun as a Comet moving in a very eccentric ellipsis. I have not yet seen any coma or tail to it." Herschel though refused to believe it was anything other than a comet, but other astronomers out there were starting to get wise to the fact that this COULD be something else. Like, you know, a planet? Finnish-Swedish astronomer Anders Johan Lexell, working in Russia, was the first to compute the orbit of the new object. Its nearly circular orbit led him to a conclusion that it was a planet rather than a comet. Berlin astronomer Johann Elert Bode described Herschel's discovery as "a moving star that can be deemed a hitherto unknown planet-like object circulating beyond the orbit of Saturn". Bode concluded that its near-circular orbit was more like a planet's than a comet's. The object was soon universally accepted as a new planet, and even Herschel had to admit it after awhile and note to Joseph Banks that he was wrong and that other astronomers had done right by labeling it a planet. Astronomy wasn't what it is right now back then. Their technologies, mixed with their understanding of the universe, was limited. For them to find Uranus and track its movements in 1781 is astounding. So it's understandable that they could get the classification wrong. 8. Its Name When you think about the 7th planet from the sun, your eyes and mind no doubt go to its name, Uranus. Which as we'll explain later has become the "but*" of many jokes. But back when the planet was truly found, that wasn't the intention at all. The name of Uranus references the ancient Greek deity of the sky Uranus, the father of Cronus (Saturn) and grandfather of Zeus (Jupiter). Consensus on the name was not reached until almost 70 years after the planet's discovery. #InsaneCuriosity #Uranus #TheSolarSystem
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