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Uranus: Difference between revisions
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Like the other giant planets, Uranus has a ring system, a large number of orbiting natural satellites, and a magnetosphere. Its ring system is extremely dark, with only about 2% of the incoming light reflected, and its satellite system contains 18 known regular moons, of which 13 are small inner moons. Further out are the larger five major moons of the planet: Miranda, Ariel, Umbriel, Titania, and Oberon. Orbiting at much greater distance from Uranus are the nine known irregular moons. The planet's magnetosphere is highly asymmetric and has many charged particles, which may be the cause the darkening of its rings and moons. | Like the other giant planets, Uranus has a ring system, a large number of orbiting natural satellites, and a magnetosphere. Its ring system is extremely dark, with only about 2% of the incoming light reflected, and its satellite system contains 18 known regular moons, of which 13 are small inner moons. Further out are the larger five major moons of the planet: Miranda, Ariel, Umbriel, Titania, and Oberon. Orbiting at much greater distance from Uranus are the nine known irregular moons. The planet's magnetosphere is highly asymmetric and has many charged particles, which may be the cause the darkening of its rings and moons. | ||
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. As of 2024, it had been visited up close only once when in 1986 the Voyager 2 probe flew by the planet. | 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. As of 2024, it had been visited up close only once when in 1986 the Voyager 2 probe flew by the planet.<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uranus Uranus wiki]</ref> | ||
==Orbit and rotation== | ==Orbit and rotation== | ||
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* "Uranus, the Magician" is a movement in Gustav Holst's orchestral suite The Planets, written between 1914 and 1916. | * "Uranus, the Magician" is a movement in Gustav Holst's orchestral suite The Planets, written between 1914 and 1916. | ||
* Operation Uranus was the successful military operation in World War II by the Red Army to take back Stalingrad and marked the turning point in the land war against the Wehrmacht. | * Operation Uranus was the successful military operation in World War II by the Red Army to take back Stalingrad and marked the turning point in the land war against the Wehrmacht. | ||
* The lines "Then felt I like some watcher of the skies/When a new planet swims into his ken", from John Keats's "On First Looking into Chapman's Homer", are a reference to Herschel's discovery of Uranus. | * The lines "Then felt I like some watcher of the skies/When a new planet swims into his ken", from John Keats's "On First Looking into Chapman's Homer", are a reference to Herschel's discovery of Uranus.<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uranus Uranus wiki]</ref> | ||