What is uranium planet. Uranus is the coldest planet

Uranus- the seventh planet of the solar system and an ice giant: description with photo, size, axial tilt, distance from the Sun, atmosphere, satellites, rings, research.

Uranus is the seventh planet from the Sun and the third largest planet in the solar system after Jupiter and Saturn. It has a collection of satellites and a ring system.

Although it can be found without the use of magnifying instruments, the planetary status was revealed only in the 18th century. Let's take a closer look at interesting facts about Uranus for children and adults.

Interesting facts about the planet Uranus

Discovered by William Herschel in 1781

• This is a dim planet, therefore it was inaccessible to ancient people. At first, Herschel thought he was seeing a comet, but a couple of years later the object received planetary status. The scientist wanted to call it "Georg's Star", but Johann Bode's version came up better.

An axial rotation takes 17 hours and 14 minutes

• The planet Uranus is characterized by retrograde, which does not converge with the general direction.

A year lasts 84 years

• But some areas are directed directly to the Sun and so last for about 42 years. The rest of the time is devoted to darkness.

It's an ice giant

• Like the rest of the gas giants, the upper layer of Uranus is represented by hydrogen and helium. But below is the icy mantle, centered over an icy and rocky core. The upper atmosphere is water, ammonia and methane ice crystals.

frosty planet

• With a temperature of -224°C, it is considered the coldest planet. Periodically, Neptune cools even more, but most of the time Uranus freezes. The upper atmospheric layer is covered with a methane haze that hides storms.

There are two sets of thin rings

• The particles are extremely small. There are 11 inner and 2 outer rings. Formed during the crash of ancient satellites. The first rings were noticed only in 1977, and the rest - in the pictures of the Hubble telescope in 2003-2005.

The names of the moons are given in honor of literary characters

• All the moons of Uranus are named after the characters of William Shakespeare and Alexander Pope. The most interesting is Miranda with icy canyons and a strange kind of surface.

Sent one mission

• Voyager 2 visited Uranus in 1986 at a distance of 81,500 km.

Size, mass and orbit of the planet Uranus

With a radius of 25360 km, a volume of 6.833 × 10 13 km 3 and a mass of 8.68 × 10 25 kg, the planet Uranus is 4 times larger than the Earth and 63 times its volume. But do not forget that this is a gas giant with a density of 1.27 g / cm 3, so here it is inferior to us.

Uranus has the greatest variable distance from the Sun. In fact, the distance fluctuates between 2,735,118,110 km and 3,006,224,700 km. With an average distance of 3 billion km, one orbital pass takes 84 years.

The rotation of the axis lasts 17 hours and 14 minutes (the length of a day on Uranus). A strong wind in the direction of rotation is noticeable in the upper atmospheric layer. At some latitudes, masses move faster and complete a revolution in 14 hours.

Surprisingly, this planet rotates almost on its side. While some have a slight axial tilt, Uranus' index reaches 98°. Because of this, the planet is going through drastic changes. At the equator, night and day are normal, but at the poles they span 42 years!

The composition and surface of the planet Uranus

The planetary structure is represented by three layers: a rocky core, an icy mantle, and an outer shell of hydrogen (83%) and helium (15%) in a gaseous state. There is another important element - 2.3% methane ice, which affects the blue color of Uranus. Various hydrocarbons can be found in the stratosphere, including ethane, diacetylene, acetylene, and methylacetylene. In the lower photo you can carefully study the structure of Uranus.

Spectroscopy revealed carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide in the upper layers, as well as ice clouds of water vapor and ammonia with hydrogen sulfide. That is why Uranus, along with Neptune, are called ice giants.

The ice mantle is represented by a hot and dense liquid, which contains water, ammonia and other volatile substances. Liquid (water-ammonia ocean) is characterized by high electrical conductivity.

The mass of the core reaches only 0.55 Earth, and along the radius - 20% of the total planetary size. The mantle is 13.4 Earth masses, and the upper atmospheric layer is 0.5 Earth masses.

The density of the core is 9 g/cm 3 , where the pressure in the center rises to 8 million bar and the temperature is 5000K.

Moons of the planet Uranus

The family consists of 27 satellites of Uranus known to us, divided into large, internal and irregular. The largest are Miranda, Ariel, Umbriel, Oberon and Titania. Their diameter exceeds 472 km, and the mass is 6.7 x 10 19 kg for Miranda, as well as 1578 km and 3.5 x 10 21 kg for Titania.

It is believed that all large moons appeared in the accretion disk, which has been around the planet for a long time since its formation. Each is represented by an almost equal ratio of rock and ice. Only Miranda stands out, which is almost entirely made of ice.

You can also note the presence of ammonia, carbon dioxide, and the rock - carbonaceous material and organic compounds. It is believed that in Titania and Oberon, on the line between the core and the mantle, a liquid water ocean may exist. The surface is generously dotted with craters. Ariel is considered the youngest and “cleanest”, but Umbriel is an old woman with scars.

The major satellites have no atmosphere, and the orbital path results in strong seasonal variations. There are 13 inner moons: Cordelia, Ophelia, Bianca, Cressida, Desdemona, Juliet, Portia, Rosalind, Cupid, Belinda, Perdita, Pak and Mab. All of them got their names in honor of the heroes of Shakespeare's works. The photo shows the moons and rings of Uranus.

The inner satellites have a strong connection with the planet's ring system. With a diameter of 162 km, Pak is considered the largest moon in this group and the only one whose image was obtained by Voyager 2.

All of them are dark bodies. Formed from water ice with dark organic material. The system is not stable and the models show that a collision may occur. Of particular concern are Desdemona and Cressida.

There are 9 irregular satellites whose orbit is located further than Oberon. They were captured after the formation of the planet itself: Francisco, Caliban, Stefano, Trinculo, Sycorax, Margarita, Prospero, Setebos and Ferdinand. They cover 18-150 km. All rotate in a retrograde direction, except for Margarita.

Atmosphere and temperature of the planet Uranus

The atmosphere of Uranus is also divided into layers determined by temperature and pressure. This is a gas giant, therefore it is devoid of a solid surface. Remote probes are capable of descending up to 300 km deep.

It is possible to distinguish the troposphere (300 km below the surface and 50 km above it with a pressure of 100-0.1 bar) and the stratosphere (50-4000 km and 0.1-10 10 bar).

The densest layer is the troposphere, where heating reaches 46.85°C and drops to -220°C. The upper region is considered the frostiest in the system. Most of the IR rays are produced in the tropopause.

Clouds are located here: water, below are ammonia and hydrogen sulfide, and on top - thin methane. In the stratosphere, the temperature varies from -220°C to 557°C, which is caused by solar radiation. On this layer, ethane smog is noted, which creates the appearance of the planet. There are acetylene and methane, which warm up this ball.

The thermosphere and corona cover 4000-50000 km from the "surface" point where the temperature is kept at 577°C. So far, no one knows exactly how the planet manages to warm up so much, because it is far from the Sun, and there is not enough internal heat.

The weather is reminiscent of older gas giants. There are bands that make revolutions around the planet. As a result, the winds accelerate to 900 km / h, leading to large-scale storms. In 2012, the Hubble Space Telescope noticed the Dark Spot, a giant eddy that extends 1,700 km x 3,000 km.

Rings of the planet Uranus

The rings of the planet Uranus are made up of dark particles ranging in size from a micrometer to a fraction of a meter, so they are not easy to see. Now it is possible to identify 13 rings, among which the brightest is epsilon. Except for two narrow ones, they stretch for several kilometers in width.

The rings are young and formed after the planet itself. It is believed that they are part of the destroyed moon (or several). One of the first observations of rings was made by James Elliot, Jessica Mink and Edward Dunham in 1977. During the eclipse of the star HD 128598, they found 5 formations.

Rings also appeared in images of Voyager 2 in 1986. And the Hubble telescope discovered new ones in 2005. The largest is twice as wide as the planet. In 2006, the Keck Observatory showed the rings in color: the outer one is blue and the inner one is red. The rest appear grey.

History of the study of the planet Uranus

Uranus is one of the five planets that could be seen with the naked eye. But this is a dim object, and the orbital path is too slow, so the ancients believed that they had a classical star in front of them. An early review belongs to Hipparchus, who pointed to the body as a star in 128 BC. e.

The first accurate observation of the planet was made by John Flamsteed in 1690. He noticed it at least 6 times and wrote it down as a star (34 Taurus). About 20 times Uranus was followed by Pierre Lemonnier in 1750-1769.

But it was not until 1781 that William Herschel began to observe Uranus as a planet. True, he himself believed that he was looking at a comet, which in habits looks like a planetary object. As a result, other astronomers joined the study, among them Anders Lexell. He was the first to determine an almost circular orbit. This was confirmed by Johann Bode.

In 1783, Uranus was officially recognized as a planet, and Herschel received 200 pounds from the king. For this, the scientist nicknamed the object the Star of George in honor of the new patron. But outside the UK, the name did not come out.

This incredibly interesting planet got its name in honor of the father of the Roman god Saturn. Uranus was the first planet to be discovered in modern history. However, at first this planet was classified as a comet in 1781, and only later did the observations of astronomers prove that Uranus is a real planet. In our review, there are curiously interesting facts about the seventh planet from the Sun, the summer on which lasts 42 years.

1. The seventh planet

Uranus is the seventh planet in terms of distance from the Sun, which ranks third in size and fourth in mass in the solar system. It is not visible to the naked eye, which is why Uranus was the first planet to be discovered with a telescope.

2. Uranus was discovered in 1781

Uranus was officially discovered by Sir William Herschel in 1781. The name of the planet comes from the ancient Greek deity Uranus, whose sons were giants and titans.

3. Too, too faded...

Uranus is too faint to be seen without special aids. At first, Herschel thought it was a comet, but a few years later it was confirmed that it was still a planet.

4. The planet lies "on its side"

The planet rotates in the opposite direction, opposite to the Earth and most other planets. Since the axis of rotation of Uranus is located unusually (the planet lies "on its side" relative to the plane of rotation around the Sun), for almost a quarter of the year one of the poles of the planet is in complete darkness.

5. The smallest of the "giants"

Uranus is the smallest of the four "giants" (they also include Jupiter, Saturn and Neptune), but it is several times larger than the Earth. The equatorial diameter of Uranus is 47,150 km, compared to the Earth's diameter of 12,760 km.

6. Atmosphere of hydrogen and helium

Like other gas giants, Uranus's atmosphere is made up of hydrogen and helium. Below is an icy mantle that surrounds a core of rock and ice (which is why Uranus is often referred to as an "ice giant"). The clouds on Uranus are made up of water, ammonia, and methane crystals, giving the planet its pale blue color.

7 Uranus Helped With Neptune

Ever since Uranus was first discovered, scientists have noticed that at certain points in its orbit, the planet leans further into space. In the nineteenth century, some astronomers suggested that this attraction was due to the gravity of another planet. By doing mathematical calculations based on observations of Uranus, two astronomers, Adams and Le Verrier, located another planet. It turned out to be Neptune, located at a distance of 10.9 astronomical units from Uranus.

8. 19.2 astronomical units

Distances in the solar system are measured in astronomical units (AU). The distance of the Earth from the Sun was taken as one astronomical unit. Uranus is at a distance of 19.2 AU. from the sun.

9. Internal heat of the planet

Another surprising fact about Uranus is that the planet's internal heat is less than that of other giant planets in the solar system. The reason for this is unknown.

10. Eternal methane haze

The upper atmosphere of Uranus is a perpetual haze of methane. She hides the storms that rage in the clouds.

11. Two external and eleven internal

Uranus has two sets of very thin dark colored rings. The particles that make up the rings are very small: from the size of a grain of sand to small pebbles. There are eleven inner rings and two outer rings, the first of which were discovered in 1977 when Uranus passed in front of a star and astronomers were able to observe the planet with the Hubble telescope.

12. Titania, Oberon, Miranda, Ariel

Uranus has a total of twenty-seven moons, most of which were named after characters from Shakespeare's comedy A Midsummer Night's Dream. The five main moons are named Titania, Oberon, Miranda, Ariel and Umbriel.

13. Ice canyons and terraces of Miranda

The most interesting moon of Uranus is Miranda. It has icy canyons, terraces, and other strange looking patches of land.

14. The lowest temperature in the solar system

Uranus has recorded the lowest temperature on the planets in the solar system at minus 224 ° C. Although such temperatures have not been seen on Neptune, this planet is colder on average.

15. Period of revolution around the Sun

A year on Uranus (i.e., the period of revolution around the Sun) lasts 84 Earth years. For about 42 years, each of its poles is under direct sunlight, and the rest of the time is in complete darkness.

For everyone who is interested in an extraterrestrial topic, we have collected.

The first four satellites did not get their names from the discoverers. Their names were given in the 19th century by William Herschel's son, John Herschel. In violation of the astronomical tradition, which requires taking names for planets and satellites from the mythological plots of different peoples, the satellites received the names of characters from the works of English writers - Shakespeare and Pope. The brightest among the satellites of Uranus - Ariel received the name of the kind, bright spirit of the air - a character found both in Shakespeare's play "The Tempest" and in Pop's poem "The Abduction of the Lock". The neighboring satellite - Umbriel, twice as dark, was named after an evil, dark spirit from the same poem by Pop. The two largest moons of Uranus, Titania and Oberon, were named after the queen of the fairies and her husband, the king of good spirits from Shakespeare's play A Midsummer Night's Dream.
Titania- (littered with craters and there are many faults and valleys on the surface) and Oberon(the surface is covered with impact craters, many of which are surrounded by a system of bright rays, inside some craters are covered with very dark matter) (their orbits are almost perpendicular to the plane of the orbit of Uranus and rotate in the opposite direction) according to theoretical estimates, they experience differentiation, that is, a redistribution of various elements in depth , resulting in the formation of a silicate core, a mantle of ice (water and ammonia) and an ice crust. The heat released during differentiation leads to a noticeable heating of the interior, which can even cause their melting. The surfaces of both moons are covered with old meteorite craters and a grid of tectonic faults with signs of ancient volcanism. A wide tectonic valley runs through the entire southern hemisphere of Oberon, also proving volcanic activity in the past. The temperature on the surface of the satellites is very low, about 60 K.
Ariel- Images taken by Voyager 2 in 1986 ( Distance 170,000 km, resolution 3 km. Diameter of Ariel - 1200 km, the southern hemisphere was filmed.), showed that its surface is covered with craters and crossed by fault cliffs and valleys. The brightest of Uranus' moons, its albedo is 0.39. The appearance of the satellite suggests that there was significant geological activity in the past. Orbital period (Earth day) 2 days 12 h 29 min. An Ariel mosaic was obtained from four high-resolution images. And if the preliminary television images spoke of activity no less than that of Titania, then here scientists saw a surface completely cut by rifts (valleys with steep edges). The depth of the rifts is close to 10 km, and the valleys themselves reach several hundred kilometers in length. The valleys branch out, forming a bizarre network of tributaries. The width of the rifts reaches 25-30 km. Their smooth bottom bears traces of some kind of movement, which is even more reminiscent of ancient formations of the same kind on Mars.
It is most probable that the rift valleys were formed during the epoch of intense rearrangement of the Ariel ice crust, which was accompanied by its faults, compression, and tectonics. There are very few meteorite craters on the surface of the satellite, which again indicates its youth, on a geological scale, of course. However ... even a seemingly fantastic assumption was made about the possible modern activity of Ariel. But then the source of his energy becomes completely incomprehensible.
As a material that could fill the valleys and move along them, ice is, of course, proposed. In order for it to be sufficiently viscous at such low temperatures, some impurities must be present in it. It is assumed that this is ammonia and methane, which, together with water, were released to the surface through faults. But just like on other satellites of Uranus, methane was not detected. There are other suggestions about the possible nature of these "glaciers near absolute zero." In every way. case, "water volcanism" on Ariel is beyond doubt.
The surface of the satellite is covered with deposits of very light material, apparently, the same water hoarfrost as on Jupiter's moon Europa.
Cordelia- one of two satellites that play the role of "shepherds" of the planet's epsilon ring (the other is Ophelia).

Umbriel- much darker than the other four large moons of Uranus, its albedo is 0.21. It seems that the surface was covered with dark matter relatively recently (on an astronomical scale). It is pitted with craters; one of them, 110 km in diameter, appears particularly bright in contrast to the rest of the surface. Sidereal orbital period 4 days 22 min. Its surface has a primitive character of large impact formations with a high degree of saturation (multiple overlap of craters). Umbriel is in a rather low orbit - only 265 thousand km. Umbriel is a very dark celestial body. There are no light emissions around its craters.
Miranda- a satellite with a diameter of less than 500 km, which contains the largest proportion of ice. He was observed from close range. The shooting managed to cover almost the entire illuminated part of the satellite, presenting it on eight high-resolution images.
In the center of the resulting image, scientists saw an almost regular trapezoid formed from dark and light stripes. The trapezoid stands out against the background of its surrounding surface by the almost complete absence of meteorite craters, while the surrounding area is a crater relief cut by small rifts. The trapezoid received the code name "chevron". Its dimensions are 140x200 km (images show details with sizes from 4.6 km and above). The stripes forming a chevron look like many parallel ridges that converge with another similar system, forming an almost right angle. The strange continuation of the chevron is a deep, up to 20 km, fault, the steep slopes of which go beyond the illuminated part of the satellite. Chevron is located at the south pole of Miranda.
No less mysterious formations, possibly of the same nature, are located near the terminator, like those of other satellites, due to the position of the polar axis, the terminator is now constantly located in the same geographical zone of Miranda - near its equator. The first of them is edged with the same system of light and dark stripes, but wider than those of the chevron. It seems that the filmed part of this object forms the sides of a regular pentagon, 5 times larger than a chevron in area. For him, as well as for another object, which will be discussed below, the name Circus Maximi was proposed, which the ancient Romans understood as a "big stadium". Indeed, the formation is very similar to the stadium, although the second of them is more reminiscent of the tracks of the hippodrome. Both at the "stadium" and at the "hippodrome" there are almost no meteorite craters, that is, these are relatively young objects. The second formation is located on the diametrically opposite side of the satellite. It resembles the outline of a "stadium" and looks like a trace of plowing on the edge of the field. These are about 15-20 parallel torus ridges, separated by the same valleys, repeating every 5-7 km.

Covered with a large number of craters, Oberon's surface has probably been stable since the beginning of its formation. Much larger craters have been found here than on Ariel and Titania. Some of the craters have ejecta rays similar to those found on Callisto. The picture on the right shows a mountain that rises 6 km above the surrounding area.	Everything is mixed up on the surface of Miranda: cratered terrain alternates with platforms with supernatural grooves, valleys alternate with cliffs more than 5 kilometers high. Here in the picture is a strange V-shaped area.

like others giant planets, the atmosphere of Uranus mainly consists of hydrogen, helium and methane, although their relative contributions are somewhat lower compared to Jupiter and Saturn.

The theoretical model of the structure of Uranus is as follows: its surface layer is a gas-liquid shell, under which there is an ice (a mixture of water and ammonia ice) mantle, and even deeper - a core of solid rocks. Mantle and core mass is about 85-90% of the total mass of Uranus. The zone of solid matter extends up to 3/4 of the radius of the planet.

The temperature in the center of Uranus is close to 10,000 K at a pressure of 7-8 million atmospheres (one atmosphere corresponds approximately to one bar). At the core boundary, the pressure is approximately two orders of magnitude lower (about 100 kilobars).

The effective temperature, determined by thermal radiation from the surface of the planet, is about 55 K.

Uranus was formed from the original solids and various ices (here, ice should be understood not only as water ice), it consists of only 15% hydrogen, and there is almost no helium at all (in contrast to Jupiter and Saturn, which, for the most part, are hydrogen ). Methane, acetylene and other hydrocarbons exist in much larger quantities than on Jupiter and Saturn. Winds at mid-latitudes on Uranus move clouds in the same directions as they do on Earth. These winds blow at speeds ranging from 40 to 160 meters per second; on Earth, fast currents in the atmosphere move at a speed of about 50 meters per second.

Thick layer (haze) - photochemical smog- is found around the pole illuminated by the Sun. The hemisphere illuminated by the Sun also emits more ultraviolet light. In this image of Uranus, the color contrast is artificially enhanced to show the difference between them.

The Voyager instruments detected a somewhat colder band between 15 and 40 degrees latitude, where the temperature is 2-3 K lower.

The blue color of Uranus is the result of absorption of red light by methane in the upper atmosphere.. Clouds of other colors probably exist, but they are hidden from observers by an overlying layer of methane. The atmosphere of Uranus (but not Uranus as a whole!) is about 83% hydrogen, 15% helium and 2% methane. Like other gas planets, Uranus has cloud bands that move very quickly. But they are too hard to distinguish and are visible only in high-resolution images taken by Voyager 2. Recent HST observations have made it possible to see large clouds. There is an assumption that this possibility appeared due to seasonal effects, because it is not difficult to figure out that winter differs greatly from summer on Uranus: the whole hemisphere hides from sun! However, Uranus receives 370 times less heat from the Sun than Earth, so it doesn't get hot there in summer either. In addition, Uranus radiates no more heat than it receives from the Sun, therefore, and most likely, it is cold inside.

The depletion of the planet's atmosphere in light gases is a consequence of the insufficient mass of the planet's embryo. In the course of formation, Uranus could not keep a larger amount of hydrogen and helium near it only because by the time the future Uranus had collected a fairly massive core, there was little free hydrogen and helium left in the solar system. But Uranus contains more water, methane, acetylene.

The discovery of Uranus was an important event and took place in 1781. This was done by William Herschel, an English astronomer. And it happened thanks to his diligence, observation and purposefulness.

William Herschel is an astronomer who discovered the planet Uranus.

William Herschel is one of the most famous people in astronomy. He owns several discoveries, including the satellites of Uranus Titania and Oberon. However, the fate of this man was very difficult, because initially he was a musician in a military orchestra and he wrote 24 symphonies! He was born in Germany in 1738, and moved to England in 1775, while serving in the army with his regiment, from which he retired for the sake of music.

Herschel's path to astronomy was winding. At first he became interested in the mathematical theory of music, and mathematics led him to optics, and here astronomy also became interested. And since he was poor and could not afford to buy a finished telescope, from 1773 he began to polish mirrors and design telescopes for himself and for sale. The first telescope he had was with a focal length of 7 feet (about 2 meters), with which he immediately began to study the sky.

The main rule of Herschel during observations was simple - not to leave not a single, even a tiny piece of the sky unexplored. The plan, of course, is grandiose, and no one has done this before. He was assisted by his sister, Caroline Herschel, who also left her mark on the history of astronomy through her selfless work with her brother.

Discovery of Uranus

After 7 years of persistent observation of the vast sky, on March 13, 1781, William directed his 7-foot telescope to the area between the constellations of Gemini and Taurus. And he was very surprised when one of the stars next to ζ Taurus appeared before him not as a bright point, but turned into a disk. Herschel immediately realized that he was not seeing a star at all, since the stars look like dots at any magnification, only their brightness changes.

Herschel's 7-foot telescope, which was used to discover Uranus

William tried to observe a strange object with different eyepieces, that is, changing the magnification of the telescope to more and more. The larger the magnification became, the larger the disk of the unknown object became, although the neighboring stars looked the same.

Puzzled by what he saw, William continued his observations, and discovered that the unknown celestial body has its own motion relative to other stars. So he thought he had found a comet, even though it's strange that it didn't have a tail, and on March 17 he made an entry about it in his journal.

In a letter to the Royal Society, Herschel wrote:

For the first time I observed this comet with a magnification of 227 times. My experience is that the diameter of stars, unlike planets, does not change proportionately when using lenses with a higher power of magnification; so I used 460 and 932 magnification lenses and found that the size of the comet increased in proportion to the change in optical magnification, suggesting that it was not a star, since the sizes of the stars taken for comparison did not change. Moreover, at higher magnifications than its brightness allowed, the comet became blurred, hard to see, while the stars remained bright and clear - as I knew from thousands of observations I had made. Repeated observation confirmed my assumptions: it really was a comet.

As soon as the strange comet became known in the circle of astronomers, it attracted close attention. Already in April, Astronomer Royal Nevil Maskelyne suggested that this object could be both a comet and a previously unknown planet. This was followed by routine work - observations, calculation of the orbit. And in 1783, Herschel recognized the fact that the strange object he discovered was a planet and named it after King George. On January 11, 1787, on the same day, he also discovered a couple of satellites of Uranus - Titania and Oberon. In the next 50 years, no one could see them - there was not enough power of telescopes. There are currently 27 known moons of Uranus. However, the discovery of Uranus was one of the largest in the life of this scientist.

The further fate of William Herschel

For his services, King George III awarded William Herschel a lifetime scholarship of 200 pounds, which at that time was a lot of money. From 1782, he came to grips with improving the design of telescopes and in 1789 built the largest telescope in the world - with a mirror diameter of 126 cm and a focal length of 12 meters.

The largest telescope built by William Herschel.

During his life, Herschel made many discoveries. For example, it used to be thought that binary stars were actually just so located in the sky that they seemed close. Herschel proved that some of them are star systems. He was the first to conclude that our Milky Way galaxy is actually a flat stellar disk, and the solar system is inside it. He owns many other discoveries, but this is a completely different story.

It is worth noting that, in fact, William Herschel was an amateur astronomer who devoted a considerable part of his life to this science. Craters on the Moon, Mars, and Mimas, and some projects, are named after him.

Photo of Uranus. The rings are visible.

As for Uranus, little was known about it for a long time. This planet does not look like anything remarkable - it does not even show any details, just a blue disk. However, in 1977, her rings were discovered (back in 1789, Herschel claimed to have seen the ring of Uranus, but they did not believe him), and then space research gave a lot of new data. And it turned out that Uranus is a rather extraordinary world that can surprise its researchers. But this is a topic for a separate article.