planets

"Mercury is a small world of extreme temperatures, with a global magnetic field like Earth’s, but much weaker. Neither Venus nor Mars has such a magnetic field, although the two planets are similar to Earth in many other ways. Venus, unlike the Earth, has a hellish temperature. Venus is farther from the Sun than Mercury but is even hotter. The high temperature is due to an extreme greenhouse effect, the process by which the atmospheric gases raise the temperature by absorbing outward flowing heat. Earth’s atmosphere may once have contained large amounts of carbon dioxide, the way Venus’s atmosphere does now. But on earth, the oceans absorbed much of carbon dioxide, so that gas could not trap as much heat in the atmosphere as it does on Venus. The three large terrestrial planets are like the bowls of cereals in the child’s story of Goldilocks. Venus is too hot, Mars is too cold, but Earth is just right to support liquid water and life as we know it."

"Although modern astrologers consider the planet Uranus to be the ruler of Aquarius, and support this because of Aquarius' tendency to be revolutionary and unconventional, Aquarius is traditionally ruled by the planet Saturn."

"Formed a design at the beginning of this week of investigating, as soon as possible after taking my degree, the irregularities in the motion of Uranus which are yet unaccounted for; in order to find whether they may be attributed to the action of an undiscovered planet beyond it ; and if possible, thence to determine the elements of its orbit, etc., approximately which would probably lead to its discovery [Neptune]."

"Things to know about Neptune are: If the Sun were as tall as a typical front door, the Earth would be the size of a nickel and Neptune would be about as big as a baseball. Neptune orbits our Sun, a star. Neptune is the eighth planet from the Sun at a distance of about 4.5 billion km (2.8 billion miles) or 30.07 AU. One day on Neptune takes about 16 hours (the time it takes for Neptune to rotate or spin once). Neptune makes a complete orbit around the Sun (a year in Neptunian time) in about 165 Earth years (60,190 Earth days). Neptune is a sister ice giant to Uranus. Neptune is mostly made of a very thick, very hot combination of water, ammonia, and methane over a possible heavier, approximately Earth-sized, solid core. Neptune's atmosphere is made up mostly of hydrogen, helium (He) and methane. Neptune has 13 confirmed moons (and 1 more awaiting official confirmation of discovery). Neptune's moons are named after various sea gods and nymphs in Greek mythology. Neptune has six rings. Voyager 2 is the only spacecraft to have visited Neptune. Neptune cannot support life as we know it. At times during the course of Neptune's orbit, dwarf planet Pluto is actually closer to the Sun, and us, than Neptune. This is due to the unusual elliptical (egg) shape of Pluto's orbit."

"Neptune's atmosphere is revealed by Voyager 2 images to contain clouds of methane ice above a lower deck of hydrogen sulfide or ammonia ices, and to be dominated by an anticyclonic storm system designated the 'Great Dark Spot'; this bears both similarities and differences to the Great Red Spot of Jupiter. Like the rings of Uranus, those of Neptune are composed of very dark, but in addition very dusty, material. Six new regular satellites have been discovered whose radii range from 25 to 200 km. Triton is noted to be a differentiated body showing evidence of early surface-melting episodes. At least two active plumes are found on Triton, which may be driven by solar heating."

"True to its nature, when Uranus was discovered in 1781, the very neat and symmetrical system of essential dignities was challenged and upset for the first time in history."

"Uranus, one of the giant planets, is the seventh planet from the Sun, sometimes visible to the naked eye. It has 27 satellites, ring system, and an axis of rotation almost lying in the plane of the orbit. Mean distance from Sun: 2870 million km; period of revolution around sun: 84 years; period of axial rotation: 17.23 hours; diameter and mass: 4 and 14.5times that of earth respectively."

"Although Uranus and Neptune are superficially twin planets, they are different enough to remind us - as do Venus and Earth - that we still have a lot to learn about the mix of natural laws and historical accidents that formed the planets and fashioned their destinies."

"The more important fundamental laws and facts of physical science have all been discovered, and these are now so firmly established that the possibility of their ever being supplanted in consequence of new discoveries is exceedingly remote. Nevertheless, it has been found that there are apparent exceptions to most of these laws, and this is particularly true when the observations are pushed to a limit, i.e., whenever the circumstances of experiment are such that extreme cases can be examined. Such examination almost surely leads, not to the overthrow of the law, but to the discovery of other facts and laws whose action produces the apparent exceptions. As instances of such discoveries, which are in most cases due to the increasing order of accuracy made possible by improvements in measuring instruments, may be mentioned: first, the departure of actual gases from the simple laws of the so-called perfect gas, one of the practical results being the liquefaction of air and all known gases; second, the discovery of the velocity of light by astronomical means, depending on the accuracy of telescopes and of astronomical clocks; third, the determination of distances of stars and the orbits of double stars, which depend on measurements of the order of accuracy of one-tenth of a second-an angle which may be represented as that which a pin's head subtends at a distance of a mile. But perhaps the most striking of such instances are the discovery of a new planet or observations of the small irregularities noticed by Leverrier in the motions of the planet Uranus, and the more recent brilliant discovery by Lord Rayleigh of a new element in the atmosphere through the minute but unexplained anomalies found in weighing a given volume of nitrogen. Many other instances might be cited, but these will suffice to justify the statement that “our future discoveries must be looked for in the sixth place of decimals.”"

"Neptune is dark, cold and whipped by supersonic winds. Neptune is the last of the hydrogen and helium gas giants in our solar system. More than 30 times as far from the Sun as Earth, the planet takes almost 165 Earth years to orbit our Sun. In 2011 Neptune completed its first orbit since its discovery in 1846."

"It is notorious that the same discovery is frequently made simultaneously and quite independently, by different persons. Thus, to speak of only a few cases in late years, the discoveries of photography, of electric telegraphy, and of the planet Neptune through theoretical calculations, have all their rival claimants. It would seem, that discoveries are usually made when the time is ripe for them—that is to say, when the ideas from which they naturally flow are fermenting in the minds of many men."

"The fact [is] that astronomers were able to predict the existence and location of Neptune, based on irregularities in the orbit of Uranus... Analysis of the orbital data of Uranus led to the conclusion that although the gravitational pull from Neptune accounted for 98% of the variation from the Uranus’s expected orbit, there were still unexplained irregularities."

"This success permits us to hope that after thirty or forty years of observation on the new Planet [Neptune], we may employ it, in its turn, for the discovery of the one following it in its order of distances from the Sun. Thus, at least, we should unhappily soon fall among bodies invisible by reason of their immense distance, but whose orbits might yet be traced in a succession of ages, with the greatest exactness, by the theory of inequalities."

"The most common distinction made between the planets is “inner planets” versus outer “planets”. The term inner planets usually refers to the seven visual planets (although sometimes Jupiter and Saturn are not included in this list). This type of classification is very much a modern construct: before 1781, when Herschel discovered Uranus, there were only "inner" or "visible" planets—planets that were visible to the naked eye. (Of course the skies were a great deal clearer then). These included the Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. The outer planets are the planets that are only visible with a telescope: Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. The asteroid Chiron functions as a bridge between the inner and the outer planets....The fastest of the outer planets is Uranus which takes about 84 years to complete a cycle of the Zodiac. Today it is not unusual to see people to live past their Uranus return and humans are gradually developing a greater understanding of the energy of Uranus."

"I cannot but wish to take this opportunity of expressing my sense of gratitude, by giving the name of Georgium Sidus... to a star which (with respect to us) first began to shine under His auspicious reign."

"The word planet comes from the Greek for “wanderer,” because the planets' positions change relative to those of the stars. The eight (formerly nine) recognized planets that orbit the Sun are, in order of increasing distance, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. The first four are called terrestrial planets and the next four giant, or Jovian, planets."

"First planet discovered that was not known in ancient times, named for the god of Heaven, husband of Gaia, the Earth, from Latin Uranus, from Greek Ouranos literally "heaven," in Greek cosmology, the god who personifies the heavens, father of the Titans. Cf. Urania, name of the Muse of astronomy, from Greek Ourania, fem. of Ouranios, literally "heavenly.""

"The planet was known in English in 1780s as the Georgian Planet ; French astronomers began calling Herschel, and ultimately German astronomer Johann Bode proposed Uranus as in conformity with other planet names. However, the name didn't come into common usage until c.185"

"Uranus after Voyager 2's encounter with Uranus was a complete success. Astronomers now have the task of interpreting all the data they gathered. ONLY a few months ago, it was possible to put the sum total of our knowledge of the distant planet Uranus into a single article. But in just a few hours, the hardy space probe Voyager 2 changed all that...Before the encounter on 24 January, astronomers knew that Uranus was four times the size of the earth, tipped up so that it ‘rotates on its side” as it orbits the sun every 84 years. It had five moons, each a few hundred kilometers across and a set of nine very narrow rings."

"Wide are the meadows of night And daisies are shining there, Tossing their lovely dews, Lustrous and fair; And through these sweet fields go, Wanderers amid the stars— Venus, Mercury, Uranus, Neptune, Saturn, Jupiter, Mars."

"The most common distinction made between the planets is “inner planets” versus outer “planets”. The term inner planets usually refers to the seven visual planets (although sometimes Jupiter and Saturn are not included in this list). This type of classification is very much a modern construct: before 1781, when Herschel discovered Uranus, there were only "inner" or "visible" planets—planets that were visible to the naked eye. (Of course the skies were a great deal clearer then). These included the Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. The outer planets are the planets that are only visible with a telescope: Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. The asteroid Chiron functions as a bridge between the inner and the outer planets....The fastest of the outer planets is Uranus which takes about 84 years to complete a cycle of the Zodiac. Today it is not unusual to see people to live past their Uranus return and humans are gradually developing a greater understanding of the energy of Uranus."

"The outer planets, which include Chiron, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto, don't operate on an individual level the way the inner planets do, and they don't fit into the system of essential dignities. Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto spend so much time in each sign that they define the characteristics of entire generations, not of individuals."

"The word planet comes from the Greek for “wanderer,” because the planets' positions change relative to those of the stars. The eight (formerly nine) recognized planets that orbit the Sun are, in order of increasing distance, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. The first four are called terrestrial planets and the next four giant, or Jovian, planets."

"Sir,—The Planet [Neptune] whose position you marked out actually exists. On the day on which your letter reached me, I found a star of the eighth magnitude, which was not recorded in the excellent map designed by Dr. Bremiker, containing the twenty-first hour of the collection published by the Royal Academy of Berlin. The observation of the succeeding day showed it to be the Planet of which we were in quest."

"We see it [the as-yet unseen, probable new planet, Neptune] as Columbus saw America from the coast of Spain. Its movements have been felt, trembling along the far-reaching line of our analysis with a certainty hardly inferior to that of ocular demonstration."

"The remote Neptune is almost certainly as much the twin of Uranus in its general features as Saturn is of Jupiter."

"Neptune was discovered by Urbain Le Verrier, John Couch Adams, and Johann Galle on 23 September 1846. It orbits around Sun 4.4983964 x 109 km away and is of 30.070 x Earth. Its Perihelion (closest) is 4.45975 x 109 km (2.981 x 101 A.U.), which is 30.318 x Earth. Its Aphelion (farthest) is 4.53704 x 109 km (3.033 x 101 A.U.), which is 29.830 x Earth. Neptune’s Sidereal Orbit Period (Length of Year) is 164.79132 Earth years, which is by comparison 164.791 x Earth. Its Orbit Circumference is 2.826 x 1010 km and by comparison 30.071 x Earth. It has an Average Orbit Velocity of 19,566 km/h (12,158 mph) which is 0.182 x Earth. Its Orbit Eccentricity is 0.00859048, which is 0.514 x Earth. It has an Orbit Inclination of 1.77 degrees. Its Equatorial Inclination to Orbit is 28.3 degrees. It has a Mean Radius of 2.4622 x 104 km, which is 3.8647 x Earth. Its Equatorial Circumference is 1.54705 x 105 km, which is 3.8647 x Earth. Its volume is 6.25257 x 1013 km3 and by comparison is 57.723 x Earth. Its mass is 1.0241 x 1026 kg, which is 17.148 x Earth. Its density is 1.638 g/cm3 , which is 0.297 x Earth. Its surface area is 7.6183 x 109 km2 and by comparison 14.980 x Earth. Its Surface Gravity is 11.15 m/s2 (36.6 ft/s2.) and by comparison if you weigh 100 pounds on Earth, you would weigh 114 pounds on Neptune. Its Escape Velocity is 2.356 x 104 m/s, which is by comparison: 2.105 x Earth. Its Sidereal Rotation Period (Length of Day) is 0.671 Earth days. The Effective Temperature on the planet is -214 °C (-353 °F) with the scientific notation of 59 K. The atmospheric constituents of Neptune are Hydrogen, Helium and Methane."

"A species having a proboscis two or three inches longer could reach the nectar in the largest flowers of Angræcum sesquipedale, whose nectaries vary in length from ten to fourteen inches. That such a moth exists in Madagascar may be safely predicted; and naturalists who visit that island should search for it with as much confidence as astronomers searched for the planet Neptune - and they will be equally successful!"

"Although Uranus and Neptune are superficially twin planets, they are different enough to remind us - as do Venus and Earth - that we still have a lot to learn about the mix of natural laws and historical accidents that formed the planets and fashioned their destinies."

"The Solar System consists of eight "planets" Mercury, Venus, Earth,Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. A new distinct class of objects called "dwarf planets" exist. "Planets" and "dwarf planets" are two distinct classes of objects. The first members of the "dwarf planet" category are Ceres, Pluto and 2003 UB313 (temporary name)."

"giant planet whose equator is nearly at right angles to its orbit. A collision with an Earth-sized object may explain the unique tilt. Nearly a twin in size to Neptune, Uranus has more methane in its mainly hydrogen and helium atmosphere than Jupiter or Saturn. Methane gives Uranus its blue tint."

"About Uranus: If the Sun were as tall as a typical front door, Earth would be the size of a nickel and Uranus would be about as big as a baseball; Uranus orbits our Sun, a star. Uranus is the seventh planet from the Sun at a distance of about 2.9 billion km (1.8 billion miles) or 19.19 AU.; One day on Uranus takes about 17 hours (the time it takes for Uranus to rotate or spin once). Uranus makes a complete orbit around the Sun (a year in Uranian time) in about 84 Earth years; Uranus is an ice giant; Most (80 percent or more) of the planet's mass is made up of a hot dense fluid of "icy" materials – water (H2O), methane (CH4). and ammonia (NH3) – above a small rocky core; Uranus has an atmosphere which is mostly made up of hydrogen (H2) and helium (He), with a small amount of methane (CH4); Uranus has 27 moons; Uranus' moons are named after characters from the works of William Shakespeare and Alexander Pope; Uranus has faint rings; The inner rings are narrow and dark and the outer rings are brightly colored; Voyager 2 is the only spacecraft to have visited Uranus; Uranus cannot support life as we know; Like Venus, Uranus has a retrograde rotation (east to west). Unlike any of the other planets, Uranus rotates on its side, which means it spins horizontally."

"The moons of Uranus seem to have got a twist."

"The Solar System consists of eight "planets" Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. A new distinct class of objects called "dwarf planets" exist. "Planets" and "dwarf planets" are two distinct classes of objects. The first members of the "dwarf planet" category are Ceres, Pluto and 2003 UB313 (temporary name)."

"Uranus is also, Ouranos in Classical Mythology, the personification of Heaven and ruler of the world, son and husband of Gaea (Earth) and father of the Titans, who was castrated and dethroned by his youngest son, Cronus,at the instigation of Gaea."

"... named for the Greek god of the sky. Uranus was the first planet discovered in modern times (1781)."

"The planet [Uranus] was discovered and identified as such in 1781 by Sir William Herschel (it had been observed before, but mistaken for a star, e.g. in 1690 when John Flamsteed cataloged it as 34 Tauri); Herschel proposed calling it Georgium Sidus, literally "George's Star," in honour of his patron, King George III of England."

"In our solar system, planetary rings are found around all the giant planets, showing spectacular variety. Jupiter's thin ring system is composed mostly of dust... Uranus has ten narrow, sometimes eccentric rings and a family of dust bands... All the ring systems have moons interspersed, which sculpt, collect, and release ring material. Moons are the likely parents of the present rings, ground down by meteorites and destroyed randomly to produce the relatively short-lived ring systems. Thus, we observe the natural stochastic results of birth and death processes when we examine the rings closely. Ring systems are relatively nearby and provide a natural laboratory for phenomena in flattened disks, including the nebula around our Sun that gave rise to the planets."

"Then felt I like some watcher of the skies When a new planet swims into his ken."

"...Pechblende does not belong either to the ores of zinc, or to those of iron, nor yet to the genus of tungsten or wolfram, and in general to none of the metallic substances hitherto known; but, on the contrary, that it consists of a peculiar, distinct, metallic substance. Therefore its former denominations, Pechblende, pitch-iron-ore, &c. are no longer applicable, and must be supplied by another more appropriate name. --- I have chosen that of Uranium, as a kind of memorial, that the chemical discovery of this new metal happened in the period of astronomical discovery of the new planet Uranus."

"Synchronicity does not admit causality in the analogy between terrestrial events and astrological constellations... What astrology can establish are the analogous events, but not that either series is the cause or the effect of the other. (For instance, the same constellation may at one time signify a catastrophe and at another time, in the same case, a cold in the head.) … In any case, astrology occupies a unique and special position among the intuitive methods... I have observed many cases where a well-defined psychological phase, or an analogous event, was accompanied by a transit (particularly when Saturn and Uranus were affected)."

"Scientific development depends in part on a process of non-incremental or revolutionary change. Some revolutions are large, like those associated with the names of Copernicus, Newton, or Darwin, but most are much smaller, like the discovery of oxygen or the planet Uranus. The usual prelude to changes of this sort is, I believed, the awareness of anomaly, of an occurrence or set of occurrences that does not fit existing ways of ordering phenomena. The changes that result therefore require 'putting on a different kind of thinking-cap', one that renders the anomalous lawlike but that, in the process, also transforms the order exhibited by some other phenomena, previously unproblematic."

"A slight sound at evening lifts me up by the ears, and makes life seem inexpressibly serene and grand. It may be in Uranus, or it may be in the shutter."

"During this time period, the discovery of the planet Uranus in 1781 caused a tremendous upset in the astrological community: this new planet forced the reevaluation of the entire system of Western astrology. Although Neptune’s and Pluto’s subsequent discoveries certainly caused stirs, Uranus was the planet that shook things up."

"As the whorls differ from one another in respect of “ breadth of rim”, the first and outermost whorl is that which has its circular rim the broadest, and the sixth whorl comes next to it in regard to breadth of rim; and, proceeding in order of breadth, the fourth whorl comes third, and the eighth fourth, and the seventh fifth, and the fifth sixth, and the third seventh, and the second eighth.' Thus we have now a new classification of the heavenly bodies, in the following sequence: 1. The Fixed Stars. 2. Venus. 3. Mars. 4. The Moon. 5. The Sun. 6. Mercury. 7. Jupiter. 8. Saturn."

"The Spirits survey the heavens and the earth and all the harmonious motions of the universe. They see the heavenly bodies set in revolving whorls, which, whorl within whorl, combine to form the Spinning-whorl on the Spindle of Necessity; and the Goddess holds the spindle on her knee, and spins the thread which the Fates wind, unwind and cut. The heavenly bodies, or the spheres or whorls in which they lie, are arranged one within another in the following order: 1. The Fixed Stars. 2. Saturn. 3. Jupiter. 4. Mars. 5. Mercury. 6. Venus. 7. The Sun. 8. The Moon. This order is as good as any other that can be framed under a geocentric hypothesis"

"The scientific theory I like best is that the rings of Saturn are composed entirely of lost airline luggage."

"Below Saturn is the well known group, the Sickle, part of the constellation of Leo. The elevation of the plane of Saturn's rings above the earth is increasing slightly at present, being now 15°, so that the rings are coming into better position for observation. The outer major axis of the rings is a little over 45 inches."

"Science is the part of NASA that's actually conducting interesting and scientifically important missions. Spacecraft sent to Mars, Saturn, Mercury, the Moon, comets, and asteroids have been making incredible discoveries, with more to come from recent launches to Jupiter, the Moon, and Mars. The country needs more of these robotic space exploration missions, not less."

"It’s amazing to me that not only can we put a probe around Saturn and get images of its moons, but our math and physics are so freaking accurate we can say, "Hey, you know what? On this date at this time if we turn Cassini that way we’ll see a moon over 2 million kilometers away pass in front of another one nearly 3 million kilometers away."