Uranus could have been Georgeor Herschel

Press, 31 January 1986, Page 22

Uranus could have been George—or Herschel

By WALTER SULLIVAN of the “new York Times” NZPA-NYT New York Voyager 2’s picture sf Uranus are the first closeup views of any of the planets that were unknown to the ancients.

After Uranus was first detected by William Herschel with his telescope in Bath, England, on March 13, 1781, the German astronomer, Johann Elert Bode, proposed that it be named for Uranus, the Greek god of the heavens.

Herschel proposed the name Georgium Sidus (Georgian Planet) in honour of his patron, King George 111. French astronomers wanted it named for Herschel. : For more than half a century Georgium Sidus was used in Britain, particularly in the royally sponsored Nautical Almanac, although that name obviously was not popular with Americans, to whom George 111 was anathema. Uranus — the preferred pronunciation is YOOR-uh-nuss — became universally accepted. Uranus the god stood high in the often violent and incestuous genealogy of the heavenly myths. His mother — and subsequent mate — Gaea (Earth) was bom of Chaos and gave birth to Uranus as god of the heavens. Together, heaven and earth produced a dozen male and female Titans, including Cronus (Saturn to the Romans) as well as numerous monsters, each with 100 arms and heads. To avoid; further childbearing, Gaea gave Cronus

a sharp implement with which he rendered his father impotent. The blood and seed that consequently fell into the sea rose again to form a new generation. The other planets derive their names from Roman mythology, according to which Saturn and his sister Ops produced a number of offspring, including Jupiter, Neptune and Pluto. With a succession of mates, Jupiter sired Venus, Mars and Mercury. Naming the moons of Uranus has been more literary than mythological. Six years after Herschel made his discovery he detected two faint objects orbiting Uranus, and two more moons were discovered in 1851. Herschel’s son, Sir John, is credited with proposing their names. Two were named for Oberon and Titania, King and Queen of the Fairies in “A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream” by Shakespeare. Inside their orbits is Umbriel, named after “a dusky, melancholy sprite” in Pope’s “Rape of the Lock.” Closer to the planet is Ariel, described by Shakespeare as “an airy spirit” in “The Tempest.” In 1948 Gerard P. Kuiper, with the 208-cm reflector of the McDonald Observatory of the University of Texas, discovered a moon even closer in and named it Miranda, for Prospero’s daughter in “The Tempest.” Voyager 2 has identified at least nine other moons on its approach to Uranus, but so far no one has gone to the writings of Shake-

speare or Pope in search of additional names. According to astronomical practice, the new ones have been given designations, such as 1986U7 and 1986U8, indicating the sequence of discovery. When Herschel first saw Uranus he realised from its fuzzy appearance that it was not a star, but he suspected it might be a comet. It did not, however, develop a tail, and it moved in a manner more like that of a planet. Dr Harlan Smith, head of the McDonald Observatory, said that by reconstructing motions of the planet, scientists had deduced that it was observed by various astronomers at least 22 times in the century before Herschel’s discovery. The planet was, however, mistaken for a star.

By 1830 tracking of Uranus had also shown that there was something unusual about its orbit. It departed from a perfect ellipse by what Smith has described as “an intolerable” degree. It was suspected that the orbit was being distorted by the gravitational pull of another planet still farther out.

The astronomers, John Couch Adams and Urbain Jean Joseph Le Verrier, specialists in celestial mechanics, began calculating the whereabouts of a planet that would produce such an effect. This led in 1845 and 1846 to precise predictions of where the planet should lie and to the discovery of Neptune.