Uranus

“ The discovery of Uranus filled the whole civilized world with wonder. The astronomers who had seen him, but missed finding out that he was a planet, must have felt bitterly mortified, and when he was discovered he was observed with the utmost accuracy and care. The calculations made to determine his path in the sky were the easier because he had been noted as a star in several catalogues previously, so that his position for some time past was known. Everybody who worked at astronomy began to observe him. ”

“ We also find that, like the other giant planets, Uranus seems to be composed of materials much lighter, on the whole, than those we find here; so that, though sixty-four times as large as the earth, Uranus is only fifteen times as heavy. If we may trust to the analogies of what we see everywhere else in our system, we can feel but little doubt that Uranus must rotate about an axis. The ordinary means of demonstrating this rotation can be hardly available in a body whose surface appears so small and so faint. ”

“ It was therefore evident that some influence must be at work affecting the movement of Uranus, in addition to those arising from any planet of which astronomers hitherto had cognizance. The only available supposition would be that some other planet, at present unrecognized, must be in our system, and that the attraction of this unknown body must give rise to those irregularities of Uranus which remained still outstanding. ”

“ They went on explaining and computing, year in and year out, and the planet Uranus kept on going somewhere else. Then they conceived of a powerful perturbing force beyond Uranus—so then that at the distance of Uranus the sun is not so dominant—in which case the effects of Saturn upon Uranus and Uranus upon Saturn are not so negligible—on through complexes of inter-actions that infinitely intensify by cumulativeness into a black outlook for the whole brilliant system. The palæo-astronomers calculated, and for more than fifty years pointed variously at the sky. ”

“ Urania, the muse of astronomy, is represented with a globe in her hand, to which she points with a small rod.
Uranus, a planet, the outermost but one of the solar system, is 1770 millions of miles from the sun, takes 30,686 of our days, or 84 of our years, to revolve round it, has four times the diameter of the earth, and is accompanied by four moons; it was discovered in 1781 by Herschel, and called by him Georgium Sidus in honour of George III.
Uranus (Heaven) , in the Greek mythology the son of Gaia (the Earth) , and by her the father of the Titans ”

“ Its orbit has about the same eccentricity as that of Jupiter, and is inclined less than a degree to the ecliptic. Uranus makes a revolution around the sun in eighty-four years, moving at the rate of a little over four miles a second. It is visible to the naked eye as a star of the sixth magnitude.
As seen in a large telescope, the planet has a decidedly sea-green color; but no markings have with certainty been detected on its disk, so that nothing is really known with regard to its rotation. Fig. 301 shows the comparative size of Uranus and the earth. ”

“ If we go back to our former comparison, we shall remember that if the earth were like a greengage plum, then Uranus would be in comparison about the size of one of those coloured balloons children play with; therefore he is much larger than the earth.
In this far distant orbit the huge planet takes eighty-four of our years to complete one of his own. A man on the earth will have grown from babyhood to boyhood, from boyhood to the prime of life, and lived longer than most men, while Uranus has only once circled in his path. ”

“ Notwithstanding that Uranus is at so great a distance from the earth, we have been able to put this planet, no less than the nearer ones, in the weighing scales, and we assert with confidence that Uranus is fifteen times as heavy as our earth. ”

“ Astrologers agree in attributing evil effects to Uranus. But the evil he does is always peculiarly strange, unaccountable, and totally unexpected. He causes the native born under his influence to be of a very eccentric and original disposition, romantic, unsettled, addicted to change, a seeker after novelty; though, if the moon or Mercury have a good aspect towards Uranus, the native will be profound in the secret sciences, magnanimous, and lofty of mind. But let all beware of marriage when Uranus is in the seventh house, or afflicting the moon. ”

“ It was only fitting that the discoverer of Uranus should pay special attention to that planet: but five or six years elapsed before his patient watchfulness was crowned with any success. Unlike Jupiter and Saturn, the light of Uranus is very faint. He does not invite pursuit; he flies from it into darkness: and the light of his moons is fainter still. Herschel suspected, perhaps hoped, that if he searched for satellites he would find them. ”

“ The great distance of Uranus has, however, prevented astronomers from studying the rotation of that planet in the ordinary manner, by observation of the displacement of marks on its surface. So far as telescopic observations are concerned, we are therefore in ignorance as to the axis about which Uranus revolves. ”

“ Uranus also seems to be greatly swollen by clouds, in the same manner as are both Jupiter and Saturn; in fact, if our earth was as big as Uranus, it would weigh four or five times as much as Uranus does. Hence we are certain that Uranus must consist of materials less dense on the whole than are those of which our earth is made. ”

“ Of course, when Uranus was found they could not upset so well-established an order as the days of the week to make room for him in it; and a very good thing it is they did not try, because there would have been another upset half-a-century later when Neptune was found.
That was a discovery even more remarkable than the discovery of Uranus, because it was made by calculation. We have already said that when a planet has been watched long enough, we can calculate just where it will be in the future ”

“ In Uranus the sun must be seen like a small brilliant star not above the hundred and fiftieth part as bright as he appears to us, but that is 2000 times brighter than our moon, so that he is really a sun to Uranus, and may impart some degree of warmth. But if we consider that water would not remain fluid in any part of Mars, even at his equator, and that, in the temperate zones of the same planet, even alcohol and quicksilver would freeze, we may form some idea of the cold that must reign in Uranus and Neptune. ”

“ Or some wandering body might have passed close enough to Uranus to change its orbit somewhat suddenly. We now know, for instance, that the swarm of meteorites which [Pg 60] gives rise to the well-known “November meteors” must have passed very close to Uranus in A.D. 126, assuming that neither the planet nor the swarm have been disturbed in any unknown manner in the meantime. It is to this encounter that we owe the introduction of this swarm to our solar system: wandering through space, they met Uranus, and were swept by his attraction into an orbit round the sun. ”

“ Besides the seven planets already mentioned, two others are in our system, Uranus and Neptune, Uranus may be said to be the octave of Venus, having her nature in a much more subtle degree; its attractions are so spiritual that they cannot be felt by the ordinary man in the proper manner, and he therefore, more readily responds to the evil side of Uranus. It is the planet which rules the ether, and when in aspect; to Mercury, or in the Ascendant, or with the Moon, it produces a touch with the force we know as electricity. ”

“ He then successively proves that this planet cannot be situated either between the Sun and Saturn, or between Saturn and Uranus; but that it must be beyond Uranus. And in this paper he asks the following questions:—‘Is it possible that the irregularities of Uranus can be owing to the action of a planet situated in the ecliptic, at a distance of twice the mean distance of Uranus from the Sun? If so, where is it actually situated? What is its mass? What are the elements of the orbit it describes? ”

“ Uranus, up to the present, is known to be attended by four satellites, and Neptune by one. The planets themselves are about equal in size; their diameters, roughly speaking, being about one-half that of Saturn. Some markings have, indeed, been seen upon the disc of Uranus, but they are very indistinct and fleeting. From observation of them, it is assumed that the planet rotates on its axis in a period of some ten to twelve hours. No definite markings have as yet been seen upon Neptune, which body is described by several observers as resembling a faint planetary nebula. ”

“ The discovery of the giant planet Uranus, an orb exceeding our earth twelve and a half times in mass and seventy-four times in volume, was a matter of much greater importance, so far as the dignity of the planetary system was concerned, for it is known that the whole ring of asteroids together does not equal one-tenth part of the earth in mass, while Uranus exceeds many times in volume the entire family of terrestrial planets—Mercury, Venus, the Earth, and Mars. ”

“ URANUS (Heaven) , in Greek mythology, the husband of Gaea (Earth) , and father of Cronus (Saturn) and other deities. As such he represents the generative power of the sky, which fructifies the earth with the warmth of the sun and the moisture of rain. For the legend of his treatment by Cronus and its meaning, see Saturn. Uranus and other Greek gods anterior to Zeus were probably deities worshipped by earlier barbarous inhabitants of the land. ”

“ On June 1, 1846, followed a second paper by the same author, in which he considers all the possible explanations of the discordance, and concludes that none is admissible except that of a disturbing planet exterior to Uranus. And assuming, in accordance with Bode’s Law, that the distance of this new planet from the sun would be about double that of Uranus (and it [Pg 44] is important to note this assumption) , he proceeds to investigate the orbit of such a planet, and to calculate the place where it must be looked for in the heavens. ”

“ From Uranus Saturn can be seen, and perhaps Jupiter, both as inferior planets, just as we see Venus and Mercury; but all the other inner planets, including Mars and the Earth, would be hopelessly lost to view, because perpetually too close to the Sun. Possibly, however, they might, on rare occasions, be seen in transit across the Sun’s disc. Neptune, of course, would be visible and be the only superior planet. The Sun itself would appear to an observer on Uranus as a very bright star, with a disc of 13⁄4′ of arc in diameter. ”

“ Early in the 19th century it was found that the planet Uranus was straying widely from its predicted positions. Two astronomers, Adams in England, and Le Verrier in France, working independently and without each other's knowledge, endeavoured to ascertain the causes of the perturbations, basing their calculations on the supposition that an undiscovered planet beyond Uranus was the disturbing factor. ”

“ The outer pair can be seen without much difficulty.
Neptune.
The existence of this planet was determined by calculation before it had been seen at all. Uranus was observed to be disturbed in his orbit, moving sometimes faster than at others; and even before Uranus had been discovered Saturn and Jupiter had been seen to be affected by some body in the system. M. Leverrier determined to ascertain the cause of this, and came to the conclusion that some other planet was influencing Uranus. The Newtonian theory here received a most convincing proof. ”

“ However, the names of Adams and Leverrier will always be coupled together as the discoverers of the new planet, which was called Neptune. The marvel is that by pure reasoning the mind of man could have achieved such results.
If the observation of Uranus is difficult, how much more that of Neptune, which is still further plunged in space! Yet by patience a few facts have been gleaned about him. He is not very different in size from Uranus. He also is of very slight density. ”

“ After the movements of Uranus had been carefully studied, it was found that on many previous occasions Uranus had been unwittingly observed by astronomers, who regarded it as a star. When these observations were all brought together, and when the track which Uranus followed through the heavens was thus opened to investigation, it was found that the movements of the planet presented considerable anomalies. The planet did not move precisely as it would have moved had it been subjected solely to the supreme attractive power of the sun. ”

“ Let us suppose that a planet is revolving outside Uranus, at a distance which is suggested by the several distances at which the other planets are dispersed around the sun. Let us assume that this outer planet has started on its course, in a prescribed path, and that it has a certain mass. It will, of course, disturb the motion of Uranus, and in consequence of that disturbance Uranus will follow a path the nature of which can be determined by calculation. ”

“ Among Miss Mitchell's papers we find the following with reference to this subject:
"... Adams, a graduate of Cambridge, made the calculations which showed how an unseen body must exist whose influences were felt by Uranus. It was a problem of great difficulty, for he had some half-dozen quantities touching Uranus which were not accurately known, and as many wholly unknown concerning the unseen planet. ”

“ They can't get nearly as far as Uranus on their power beam—it's all they can do to make Jupiter. They seem to think, though, that one or more of the satellites of Uranus or Neptune may be inhabited by beings similar to themselves, only perhaps even more so. But considering the difference between what we found on the Jovian satellites and on Titan, I'd say that anything might be out there—on Uranus, Neptune, their satellites, or anywhere else. ”