The Planet Uranus Of all the planets in the Milky Way galaxy, Uranus is probably mocked the most (besides Pluto). Despite the humor of its name, Uranus is named for the Greek god of the sky, Uranus. It was discovered on March 13, 1781 by an astronomer named William Herschel using a telescope that he had built himself (Cool Cosmos). Although Herschel had been the one to discover it, the name was suggested by Johann Bode who was also an astronomer. Uranus had originally been thought to be a star, until Herschel realized that it orbited the sun as planets do. It is the only planet to be named after a Greek god rather than a Roman god (Redd). Uranus is the seventh planet from the sun, orbiting at a distance of 2.88 billion kilometers away (Williams). …show more content…
At certain times, it is possible to see Uranus without a telescope. Uranus is about four times larger than Earth. The volume of Uranus is so large that 63 Earths could fit inside and still have room to spare (Fraser). The mass of Uranus is 14.5 times more massive than Earth, which may sound like a lot, but Uranus is the smallest of the outer planets. Although Uranus does not have a true “surface,” the surface area is so great that 16 Earths could be flattened out and barely cover the surface area of Uranus (Fraser). Another difference between Earth and Uranus is their distance from the sun. Earth is obviously closer to the sun than Uranus at 93 million miles away, while Uranus is 1.7 billion miles away. This makes Uranus the coldest planet in this solar system even though it is not the farthest planet from the sun. Perhaps one of the cooler differences between Earth and Uranus is the makeup of their atmospheres. Earth’s atmosphere mainly contains nitrogen and oxygen to support human life. Uranus’s atmosphere contains large amounts of methane, helium, and hydrogen; no …show more content…
Even though the planet itself was discovered in 1781, the rings of Uranus weren’t discovered until 1977 by the astronomical team of James L. Elliot, Edward W. Dunham, and Douglas J. Mink. Uranus has thirteen distinct rings that start around 38,000 kilometers from the center of the planet to almost 98,000 kilometers. Uranus’s rings are relatively dark and are made up of larger chunks that would really qualify as boulders and not dust. The rings are particularly tiny as each ring is only a few kilometers thick. Unlike Saturn’s rings, Uranus’s rings have proven to be surprisingly stable (Moscato). Each of the rings are unique in their own way; one even appears to “breathe” as it expands and contracts around five kilometers every few hours (Moscato). Uranus’s rings are also thought to be no more than 600 million years old, which is very young in planetary terms. Some theories suggest that the rings were formed from a few shepherded moons that were shattered by Uranus’s gravity and turned into rings after the chunks collided and turned into small particles
Whether it is a full moon, a waxing crescent, or a new moon, many wonder what is out there. If there is more to the universe, than just Earth. The Moons of Jupiter are an unknown topic to many, and there are many interesting facts about it. Galileo Galilei, born in 1564 played a huge role in most of the science we know today, and it is because of him we are beginning to understand the moons of Jupiter. All these moons of Jupiter’s have their own reason as to which they stand out why. All in all, even though the moons of Jupiter’s are unknown to many, it is an important piece to connecting the puzzle in our universe.
To date Uranus has been found to have 21 satellites four of which have yet to be named and 11 rings.
It has been known that the Romans and the Greeks have had many interactions with each other, whether it would be due to trading or just plain traveling, the stories of their myths have crossed each other in one way or another. This is may be the reason why there are many similarities between Greek and Roman Mythology. Even though a Greek god or goddess may have a different name in Roman Mythology they still performed similar tasks and were worshiped for similar reasons. I will compare and contrast Greek gods with their Roman equivalences to see how similar they truly are to each other. Probably the most famous Greek god, Zeus, was the god of all gods. Born to Cronus and Rhea, he was the ruler of the sky, and had the power to create thunderstorms and lightning as well as earthquakes. As the story goes he overthrew his father, Cronus, and became the ruler of Mount Olympus to head the new line of Gods. Jupiter, also known as Jove, was very much like Zeus. He was the predominant power holder among the Roman Gods. According to Tripp, Jupiter is a “contraction of two words meaning ‘Heavenly Father.’”(Pg. 332) He ruled the sky, controlled all of the weather, and had thunderbolts as a weapon. Tripp also wrote “Jupiter’s cult and his general character were, however, well established in Italy before the Greek religion became influential there.” (Pg. 333) This implies that the idea of Zeus, Jupiter and Jove had very little influence on each other since they were created before the Greek myths and Roman myths had started to cross paths. Hera, the wife and sister of Zeus, was the goddess of marriage, childbirth, and the queen of the heavens. She gave birth to Ares, Hebe, and Eileithyia. She also gave birth to Hephaestus, but it has been believed that she bore him without the aid of Zeus. In Ovid’s Metamorphoses, she was extremely jealous of the affairs that her husband had and she often tormented or harmed Zeus’s mistresses. Juno, the feminine version of Jupiter’s name, is Hera’s counterpart. Juno had many names that served for different purposes. As Juno Pronuba, she was goddess of marriage, as Juno Lucina, she was the goddess of childbirth, and as Juno Regina, she was the special counselor and protector of the Roman state. (Roman Mythological Characters, Juno) In Tripp, there was also a Juno Moneta that was governed finances. (Pg. 332) It seem...
The earth is made up of roughly 111 elements and combinations thereof, but only around 90 of the elements occur naturally. In 1789 Martin Klaproth discovered a new element and decided to name it after the newly discovered planet Uranus (Zoellner, 2009). This element called uranium is lithophilic and is the last natural element on the periodic table. It is the 92nd elements, containing 92 protons and an atomic mass of 238.0 grams (Cox, 1995). Uranium comes from the ores of uranite, canotite, and is present in only low concentrations of igneous rocks, such as granite. Uranium can also be seen in some glazes of pottery, as well as in the metals of armor-piercing weapons. This element also contains an extremely long half-life of over four billion years. This means that a majority of the uranium on earth today, is the exact same uranium that was present in the makings of the Earth (Cox, 1995; Thomson, 1963).
Travel back to the time of gods wielding thunder bolts and the power to move the Sun across the sky. Gladiator’s fought for blood in monumental arenas and men ran faster than thought possible. Where a crown of olive branches was worth more than a wagon-load of gold. A time when men combined their strength to lift tons of stone more than 50 feet in the air to construct immense temples and monuments that would last thousands of years to come. This is Ancient Greece during its Golden Age.
for the first time but the export of such classics as olives, wine and pottery
The Greeks were very strong in their polytheistic beliefs. Polytheism is when someone believes in more than one god. In the Greeks case, there were an unbelievable amount but there were 12 main Olympian Gods. There are also plenty of minor gods that are still important in their lives. The Greek gods impacted the lives of the Greeks through their religion and beliefs. Many people don’t know the story behind the gods and how they came into “existence”. That is what you will learn from this report.
Pluto is usually farther from the Sun than any of the nine planets; however, due to the eccentricity of its orbit, it is closer than Neptune for 20 years out of its 249 year orbit. Pluto crossed Neptune's orbit January 21, 1979, made its closest approach September 5, 1989, and will remain within the orbit of Neptune until February 11, 1999. This will not occur again until September 2226.
Many people would blatantly state that the importance of the gods in Greek society derives from the fact that Gods in any society are usually used to explain phenomenon that people cannot logically comprehend, but in ancient Greece gods were actually entities that took part in the workings of society itself. Even simple aspects of day-to-day life such as sex and disputes between mortals were supposedly influenced by godly workings. Unlike modern religions such as Catholicism, Buddhism, and Hinduism, where an omnipotent force supposedly controls the workings of the world, a hierarchy of Gods characterized religion in ancient Greece. Working as one big family, which they actually were, each one of the Greek gods governed a certain aspect of the world in a way that usually reflected their own humanlike personalities. These unique personalities also contained many human flaws such as envy and greed, and were where the Greek God’s importance lay. Greek religion was more concentrated on the way an individual dealt with situations that popped up in the world around him than on understanding the world itself. In other words the Greeks were more interested in the workings of the mind than in the workings of the environment around them.
and the universe with 11 other gods. Zeus was the spiritual father of the gods.
Research News Planetary Scientists are Seeing the Unseeable Richard A. Kerr Science, New Series, Vol. 235, No. 2 -. 4784. The. Jan. 2, 1987, pp. 113-117. 29-31. The 'Standard' of the 'Standard'. Stable URL:
Uranus is so far away that scientists knew comparatively little about it before NASA's Voyager 2 undertook its historic first encounter with the planet. The spacecraft flew closely past distant Uranus, and came within 81,500 kilometers (50,600 miles) of Uranus's cloudtops on Jan. 24, 1986. Voyager 2 radioed thousands of images and mass amounts of other scientific data about Uranus, its moons, rings, atmosphere, interior and magnetic environment. However, while Voyager has revealed much about the gas giant, many questions remain to be answered.
Gill, N. S. "Pluto - The Roman and Greek God Pluto." About.com Ancient / Classical History. N.S. Gill, n.d. Web. 11 Apr. 2014.
Unlike most of the planets in the solar system, Venus has no rings, nor does it have any moons. “Named for the Roman goddes...
Our solar system has eight planets, their moons and satellites, and they are all orbiting the Sun. The eight planets are Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. Pluto used to be the ninth planet but IAU changed the definition of planet and Pluto did not meet the standards so it is now a Dwarf planet.