|
|
Article: Uranus
- Article from:
- Space Sciences
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2002 The Gale Group Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
|
Uranus
Uranus was the first planet to be discovered that had not been known since antiquity. Although Uranus is just bright enough to be seen with the naked eye, and in fact had appeared in some early star charts as an unidentified star, English astronomer William Herschel was the first to recognize it as a planet in 1781.
The planet's benign appearance gives no hint of a history fraught with catastrophe: Sometime in Uranus's past, a huge collision wrenched the young planet. As a result, the rotation pole of Uranus is now tilted more than 90 degrees from the plane of the planet's orbit. Uranus travels in a nearly circular orbit at an average distance of almost 3 billion kilometers (1.9 ...