March 13, 1781: A happy accident<\/h3>\n
The 7th planet \u2013 Uranus \u2013 was discovered on March 13, 1781, completely by accident. British astronomer William Herschel was performing a survey of all stars of at least magnitude 8. These are stars slightly too faint to see with the eye alone. That\u2019s when he noticed a very faint object \u2013 only barely above the limit for viewing with the eye \u2013 that moved in front of the fixed stars. This movement clearly demonstrated that the object was closer to us than the stars. At first, he thought he had found a comet. Later, he and others realized it was a new planet in orbit around our sun, the first new planet discovered since ancient times. <\/p>\n
Astronomers later learned they had observed Uranus as far back as 1690. They\u2019d just never really noticed it before. It was Herschel who first realized the true nature of this distant light in our sky.<\/p>\n
The 2024 lunar calendars are here! Best Christmas gifts in the universe! Check \u2019em out here.<\/p>\n Herschel proposed to name the object Georgium Sidus<\/em>, after King George III, but those outside of Britain weren\u2019t pleased with the idea. Instead, on the suggestion of astronomer Johann Elert Bode, astronomers decided to follow the convention of naming planets for the ancient gods. <\/p>\n Uranus \u2013 an ancient sky god, and one of the earliest gods in Greek mythology \u2013 was sometimes called Father Sky and was considered to be the son and husband of Gaia, or Mother Earth.<\/p>\n King George III was pleased, whatever the name. As a result of Herschel\u2019s discovery, the king knighted him and appointed him to the position of court astronomer. The pension attached let Herschel quit his day job as a musician and focus his full attention on observing the heavens. He went on to discover several moons around other gas giant planets. He also compiled a catalog of 2,500 celestial objects that\u2019s still in use today. <\/p>\n In 1977, astronomers using the Kuiper Airborne Observatory made another serendipitous discovery. They found rings around the planet Uranus. That discovery made Uranus the second known ringed planet in our solar system. Currently Uranus has 13 known rings and 27 known moons, most of which are small. <\/p>\n The closest we humans have come to Uranus was in 1986, when the Voyager 2 spacecraft swung by the planet. At its closest, the spacecraft came within 81,500 kilometers (50,600 miles) of Uranus\u2019s cloud tops on January 24, 1986. Voyager 2 radioed thousands of images and voluminous amounts of other scientific data on the planet, its moons, rings, atmosphere, interior and the magnetic environment surrounding Uranus.<\/p>\n Bottom line: British astronomer William Herschel discovered the planet Uranus \u2013 the first planet discovered since ancient times \u2013 on March 13, 1781.<\/p>\n Read more: Uranus at opposition on November 13, 2023<\/p>\n Read more: Seasons of Uranus, a sideways world with strange seasons<\/p>\n <\/div>\n![\"Drawing](\"https:\/\/earthsky.org\/upl\/2015\/03\/herschel-40-foot-telescope-e1426015573941.jpg\")
How Uranus got its name<\/h3>\n
![\"Many](\"https:\/\/earthsky.org\/upl\/2013\/03\/Uranian_rings_scheme.png\")
Rings of Uranus<\/h3>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/earthsky.org\/upl\/2013\/02\/uranus_13-03-2013_nasa-e1360344770220.jpg\")