URANUS

This article appears in Volume V27, Page 789 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

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URANUS , in astronomy, the seventh major planet in the order of distance from the sun, and denoted by the symbol a or W. It was discovered by the elder Herschel on the
13th of March 1781. He saw it as a round nebulous disk, slowly moving among the stars, and at first supposed it to be a comet, and announced it as such to the Royal Society. But a few weeks' observation showed it to be moving in a nearly circular orbit at a distance from the sun about nineteen times that of the earth. Its planetary character was thus established, and Herschel named it the Georgium Sidus in honour of his royal patron. This name was long recognized in England, and " the Georgian " was officially used in the Nautical Almanac up to 185o. But it was never received with favour on the continent of Europe, nor was that of the discoverer, which was proposed by Lalande. The name Uranus was proposed by Bode, and adopted everywhere outside of England.
As seen in a telescope of the highest power, Uranus presents to the eye the

appearance

APPEARANCE (from Lat. apparere, to appear)

of a disk about four seconds in

diameter

DIAMETER (from the Cr. &a, through, µErpov, measure)

of a faint sea-green tint. No trace of a marking can be seen on the surface, and, so far as

measures

MEASURES

have yet been made on it, no deviation of the disk from a circular form has been established. Nothing is therefore known as to its axial rotation. Although the planet is commonly considered a telescopic one, it is really of the

sixth

SIXTH

magnitude, and therefore faintly visible to the naked eye if one knows precisely where to look for it. Long before its discovery it had been observed as a fixed

star

STAR

by J. Flamsteed. P. C. Lemonnier also made eight observations of it during the opposition of 1768-69, which would have revealed its planetary character had he reduced and compared them. For other particulars relating to Uranus, its spectrum, &c., see PLANET.
Satellites of Uranus.In January 1787 Herschel detected two satellites of Uranus of which the inner one, now known as Titania, had a period of 9 days, the outer, Oberon, of 13z days. He also on other occasions saw what he supposed to be two additional satellites, but careful investigation of his observations has shown that the supposed objects could not have been of this character. But in 185152 William Lassell at Malta, in conjunction with his assistant A. Marth, observed two satellites yet nearer the planet than those of Herschel. These are now known as Ariel and Umbriel. Their periodic times are about 2-1 and 4 days respectively. Lassell's telescopes, which were reflectors, were superior to others of his time in light-power, and these inner satellites were not seen by other astronomers for more than twenty years after their discovery. Indeed, doubts of their reality sometimes found expression until, in 1873, they were observed with the Washington 26-inch telescope, and observations upon them showed their identity with the objects discovered by Lassell. The greater difficulty in seeing the inner than the outer satellites arises from their proximity to the planet. There is no very

great

GREAT

difference in the actual brightness of the four objects. It is found that Umbriel, though less easy to see than Titania, actually exceeds it in light. But none of them has been seen except in a few of the most powerful telescopes. The most remarkable feature of these bodies is that, instead of the planes of their orbits being near that of the ecliptic, they are actually inclined to it nearly 900. The result is that, as the planet performs its orbital revolution, there are two opposite points near which the orbits are seen edgewise, and the satellites seem to us to swing north and south on each side of the planet. This was the case in 1882, and will be the case again in 1924. At the points midway between these two, through which the planet passed in 1861 and 1903, and will pass again in 1945, the orbits are seen almost perpendicularly, so that the apparent orbit, like the real one, is nearly circular.
Orbits of the Satellites of Uranus.So far as has yet been determined, the four satellites all revolve in the same plane, the position of which, referred to the Earth's

equator

EQUATOR (
Late
- LATE
Lat. aequator, from aequare, to make equal)

and

equinox

EQUINOX (from the Lat. aequus, equal, and nox, night)

, is
R.A. of ascending node, 166o5+oo142ot.
Inclination of orbit, 7528-000131.
None of the orbits seems to have a measurable eccentricity. The positions of the satellites in the orbits at any time may be found from the following elements, where u is the angular
distance from the node upon a plane parallel to that of the Earth's

equator

EQUATOR (
Late
- LATE
Lat. aequator, from aequare, to make equal)

, and the motion is that in a Julian year.
Satellite. u at Annual Motion. Daily Mean
A
Epoc h . Motion. Dist.
Ariel 2261 579 rev. +24264 142836 13"78
Umbriel 13649 352 ,, +195'31 86'869 19".20
Titania 229'93 167 +294'20 41351 31"<48
Oberon 154.90 1o8 +186.27 26739 42"10
The epoch force is 1872, January o, Washington mean

noon

NOON

. The mean distance is the angle subtended by the radius of the orbit as seen at the mean distance of Uranus from the Sun (log a=1.28310).

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