Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
In 2011 a new bus station, the design of which was inspired by the infrared experiment of William Herschel, was built in the centre of Slough. [112] John Keats alludes to Herschel's discovery of Uranus in his 1816 sonnet "On First Looking into Chapman's Homer": "Then felt I like some watcher of the skies/ When a new planet swims into his ken."
Uranus is visible to the naked eye, but it is very dim and was not classified as a planet until 1781, when it was first observed by William Herschel. About seven decades after its discovery, consensus was reached that the planet be named after the Greek god Uranus (Ouranos), one of the Greek primordial deities.
In 1781, German-born British astronomer William Herschel made Uranus the first planet discovered with the aid of a telescope. This frigid planet, our solar system's third largest, remains a bit of ...
Uranus's irregular moons have elliptical and strongly inclined (mostly retrograde) orbits at large distances from the planet. [3] William Herschel discovered the first two moons, Titania and Oberon, in 1787. The other three ellipsoidal moons were discovered in 1851 by William Lassell (Ariel and Umbriel) and in 1948 by Gerard Kuiper . [1]
Titania was discovered by William Herschel on January 11, 1787, the same day he discovered Uranus's second largest moon, Oberon. [1] [11] He later reported the discoveries of four more satellites, [12] although they were subsequently revealed as spurious. [13]
The names of all four satellites of Uranus then known were suggested by Herschel's son John in 1852, at the request of William Lassell, [17] who had discovered the other two moons, Ariel and Umbriel, the year before. [18] It is uncertain if Herschel devised the names, or if Lassell did so and then sought Herschel's permission. [19]
The rings of Uranus were discovered on March 10, 1977, by James L. Elliot, Edward W. Dunham, and Jessica Mink. William Herschel had also reported observing rings in 1789; modern astronomers are divided on whether he could have seen them, as they are very dark and faint. [1] By 1977, nine distinct rings were identified.
In 1781, William Herschel was looking for binary stars in the constellation of Taurus when he observed what he thought was a new comet. Its orbit revealed that it was a new planet, Uranus, the first ever discovered telescopically. [20] Giuseppe Piazzi discovered Ceres in 1801, a small world between Mars and