Uranus: The Planet George
March 13, 1781 AD
1781 1781
00.36W51.31N
NAT

SEVENTH PLANET, SOLAR SYSTEM
	William Herschel could not find a telescope as good as he wanted, so he decided to learn how to build them himself. As he learned to grind lenses for telescopes, he became so good at it that he built the best telescope in the world for its time.
	While gazing through his telescope on March 13, 1781, Herschel found a star that wasn't supposed to be there. Also, it didn't seem like a star because it had a disk shape. After watching for several nights, it was clear the thing was moving! At first, he thought it might be a comet -- but comets appear fuzzy at the edges and this object was very clean and crisp.
	Herschel, an Englishman, had discovered the first planet that could not be seen from Earth with the naked eye.
	The French, who were great competitors to English scientists, generously suggested that the planet be named Herschel. The English Royal Society, and Herschel himself, called the planet "The Georgian," after King George the III.
	Most other countries, however, were not inclined to have a planet named George. Since it was the next planet past Saturn, they named it Uranus, after the father of the Roman god Saturn. The discovery of Uranus caused the known solar system to double in size.
	Like Saturn, pale blue-green Uranus is composed mostly of gas. It is about 1-3/4 billion miles from the sun and it takes 84 Earth years for Uranus to circle the sun. On January 24th, 1986, the Voyager II spacecraft had its nearest approach to Uranus. While there, it confirmed that Uranus lays on its side with one of its poles pointing directly at the sun. Voyager also discovered two new rings to add to the planet's previously known nine rings.
	Over time, astronomers were able to precisely calculate what Uranus' orbit should be based on the new laws of gravity and motion discovered by Johannes Kepler and Isaac Newton. By 1821 Alexis Bouvard compared Uranus' actual orbit against the projections based on Newton's laws. They didn't agree!  Hmm, how confusing.
	Perhaps, some thought, there is yet another planet beyond Uranus that is affecting its orbit...