Monday, October 15, 2012

31 Days of Planets: Uranus

Day 12

Of all the planets in the solar system, I know the least about Uranus. Turns out it is the seventh planet from the sun and is named after Zeus' Grandfather. It's chemical composition is made up primarily of helium and hydrogen, and is full of ices - like water, ammonia, methane, etc. They call it an... ICY GIANT.

For me, that phrase conjures up a massive glacier in a humanoid shape, pounding its heavy feet into the ground and randomly picking up and eating things.

Continuing on, Uranus also has rings. An icy giant with rings, eh... I wonder if, for an ICY GIANT, rings is some sort of disease - like shingles. Anyway, Uranus' rings are dark, and in addition to the first ring system that was discovered, they (astronomers) found an outer ring system as well, located twice the distance from the planet as the first-discovered ring system.

Uranus has twenty-seven  rings; all are named after Shakespearean characters, with the five primary moons called: Miranda, Ariel, Umbriel, Titania, and Oberon. 

In my opinion, Uranus is absolutely gorgeous:





In conclusion:

Then felt I, like some watcher of the skies
When a new planet swims into his ken

-John Keats, On First Looking Into Chapman's Homer

Pictures from Wikipedia.

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