Why is Uranus called Uranus?
1781March 13, the seventh planet, Uranus, was discovered on this day, which was completely accidental.
At that time, the British astronomer William Herschel was observing a star that was hard to see with the naked eye, and then he noticed a very faint celestial body moving in front of the star. This movement clearly shows that it is closer to the earth than the background star. At first, he thought it was a comet, but later he knew it was a new planet orbiting the sun. This is the first new planet discovered since ancient times.
Astronomers later learned that they actually observed Uranus as early as 1690, but they never really noticed it.
Herschel realized the essence of this distant starlight for the first time. In order to repay the support and help of George III, he proposed to name it Georgium Sidus, but people outside Britain were not satisfied with this proposal. Then, at the suggestion of astronomer Johann Elert Bode, astronomers decided to follow the practice of naming planets after ancient gods.
Uranus, the ancient god of the sky, is one of the earliest gods in Greek mythology. He is sometimes called the father, and is regarded as the son and husband of Gaia, the mother of the earth. Finally, this newly discovered planet was named Uranus.
No matter how to name the planet, King George III was very happy. Because of Herschel's discovery, the king knighted him and appointed him as the king's private astronomer. The extra pension made Herschel quit his daily job as a musician and concentrate on observing the sky. He continued to discover several satellites around other gas giants and compiled a list of nebulae and clusters of 2,500 celestial bodies still in use.
1977, astronomers accidentally discovered the halo around Uranus through the Kuiper Airborne Observatory. This discovery makes Uranus the second planet in the solar system with a known ring.
The latest human probe came to Uranus in 1986, and Voyager 2 visited the planet. 1986 65438+1At the closest time on October 24th, the probe was only 8 1 1,500 kilometers away from the cloud top of Uranus. Voyager 2 sent back a lot of images and scientific data about Uranus to the earth.