Life's Place in the Cosmos

by Hiram Percy Maxim, 1933



URANUS

Now we come to the recently discovered planets. Up to Saturn all the planets are visible to the naked eye and therefore were known to the ancients. Uranus can only just barely be seen by the unaided eye, and the assistance of a telescope is necessary to study it. He was discovered hy Sir William Herschel in r78r entirely by accident. Scanning the heavens with his telescope on the lookout for anything interesting, Herschel noticed that one of the faint stars moved with relation to the others. This, of course, was highly suspicious, and he concentrated his attention upon it. After noting its position and observing it over a period of tinr,r ir: ;roved that it moved. It did not take long thereafter to ascertain its orbit and its important characteristics.

Uranus is away out some rr78o million miles from the Sun. He must be hundreds of degrees cold. It takes 84 of our years for him to get once around the Sun. His day is something of the order of ro hours long. He has four moons. We do not know much about him. It is very doubtful if he can have any form of life, much less intelligent life. Uranus probably is what remains of a once much larger planet which, like Mars, lost a large portion of its matter in its very early life when it had a highly eccentric orbit and at times approached too near to the Sun. His diameter is around 32rooo miles.



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