Uranus (planet)
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Magic
The planet of breaking new ground, unusual thinking, new thought, and invention. Higher communication directly with the divine mind. Represents our intuition, our sense of “knowing”. Can trick us into seeing things in a new way. Call upon Uranus to stimulate your mind into seeing, doing, and communicating things differently.
Archetypes[edit]
- Sky God
- Divine Rebel
- Trickster
Astrology
[1]Uranus (Uranus symbol (fixed width).svg) is the modern ruling planet of Aquarius and is exalted in Scorpio. In classical Greek mythology, Uranus is the personification of the sky. The planet Uranus is unusual among the planets in that it rotates on its side so that it presents each of its poles to the Sun in turn during its orbit; causing both hemispheres to alternate between being bathed in light and lying in total darkness over the course of the orbit.
Uranus takes 84 years to orbit the Sun, spending about seven years in each sign of the zodiac. Uranus was discovered to be a planet only in 1781 by Sir William Herschel.
Astrological interpretations associate Uranus with the principles of ingenuity, new or unconventional ideas, individuality, discoveries, electricity, inventions, democracy, and revolutions. Uranus, among all planets, most governs genius.
Uranus governs societies, clubs, and any group based on humanitarian or progressive ideals. Uranus, the planet of sudden and unexpected changes, rules freedom and originality. In society, it rules radical ideas and people, as well as revolutionary events that upset established structures. Uranus is also associated with Wednesday, alongside Mercury (since Uranus is in the higher octave of Mercury).
In art and literature, the discovery of Uranus coincided with the Romantic movement, which emphasized individuality and freedom of creative expression. Additionally, it is often linked to an individual's animal spirit. When it comes to medicine, Uranus is believed to be particularly associated with the sympathetic nervous system, mental disorders, breakdowns and hysteria, spasms, and cramps. Uranus is considered by modern astrologers to be the primary native ruler of the eleventh house.
Science
[2]Uranus is the seventh planet from the Sun. Uranus has the third-largest planetary radius and fourth-largest planetary mass in the Solar System. The planet is similar in composition to Neptune, and both have bulk chemical compositions which differ from those of the other two giant planets, Jupiter and Saturn (the gas giants). For this reason, scientists often distinguish Uranus and Neptune as "ice giants".
As with gas giants, ice giants lack a well-defined solid surface. Uranus's atmosphere is similar to Jupiter's and Saturn's in its primary composition of hydrogen and helium, but it contains more "ices" such as water, ammonia, and methane, along with traces of other hydrocarbons. It has the coldest planetary atmosphere in the Solar System, with a minimum temperature of 49 kelvins (−224 °C; −371 °F). It has a complex, layered cloud structure; water is thought to make up the lowest clouds and methane the uppermost layer. The planet's interior is mainly composed of ices and rock.
Like the other giant planets, Uranus has a ring system, a magnetosphere, and numerous moons. The Uranian system has a unique configuration because its axis of rotation is tilted sideways, nearly into the plane of its solar orbit. Therefore, its north and south poles lie where most other planets have their equators.
Nomenclature[edit]
The name of Uranus references the ancient Greek deity of the sky Uranus (Ancient Greek: Οὐρανός), known as Caelus in Roman mythology, the father of Cronus (Saturn) and grandfather of Zeus (Jupiter), which was rendered as Uranus in Latin (IPA: [ˈuːranʊs]).[2] It is the only one of the eight planets whose English name derives from a figure of Greek mythology. The adjectival form of Uranus is "Uranian". The pronunciation of the name Uranus preferred among astronomers is /ˈjʊərənəs/ YOOR-ə-nəs, with stress on the first syllable as in Latin Uranus, in contrast to /jʊˈreɪnəs/ yoo-RAY-nəs, with stress on the second syllable and a long a, though both are considered acceptable.[f]
Uranus has two astronomical symbols. The first to be proposed, ⛢,[g] was proposed by Johann Gottfried Köhler at Bode's request in 1782. Köhler suggested that the new planet be given the symbol for platinum, which had been described scientifically only 30 years before. As there was no alchemical symbol for platinum, he suggested ⛢ or ⛢, a combination of the planetary-metal symbols ☉ (gold) and ♂ (iron), as platinum (or 'white gold') is found mixed with iron. Bode thought that an upright orientation, ⛢, fit better with the symbols for the other planets while remaining distinct. This symbol predominates in modern astronomical use in the rare cases that symbols are used at all. The second symbol, ♅,[h] was suggested by Lalande in 1784. In a letter to Herschel, Lalande described it as "un globe surmonté par la première lettre de votre nom" ("a globe surmounted by the first letter of your surname"). The second symbol is nearly universal in astrology.
Uranus is called by a variety of names in other languages. In Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese, its name is literally translated as the "sky king star" (天王星). In Thai, its official name is Dao Yurenat (ดาวยูเรนัส), as in English. Its other name in Thai is Dao Maruettayu (ดาวมฤตยู, Star of Mṛtyu), after the Sanskrit word for 'death', Mrtyu (मृत्यु). In Mongolian, its name is Tengeriin Van (Тэнгэрийн ван), translated as 'King of the Sky', reflecting its namesake god's role as the ruler of the heavens. In Hawaiian, its name is Heleʻekala, the Hawaiian rendering of the name 'Herschel'. In Māori, its name is Whērangi.
Moons[edit]
Uranus has 27 known natural satellites. The names of these satellites are chosen from characters in the works of Shakespeare and Alexander Pope. The five main satellites are
- Miranda,
- Ariel,
- Umbriel,
- Titania, and
- Oberon.
The Uranian satellite system is the least massive among those of the giant planets; the combined mass of the five major satellites would be less than half that of Triton (largest moon of Neptune) alone. The largest of Uranus's satellites, Titania, has a radius of only 788.9 km (490.2 mi), or less than half that of the Moon, but slightly more than Rhea, the second-largest satellite of Saturn, making Titania the eighth-largest moon in the Solar System. Uranus's satellites have relatively low albedos; ranging from 0.20 for Umbriel to 0.35 for Ariel (in green light). They are ice–rock conglomerates composed of roughly 50% ice and 50% rock. The ice may include ammonia and carbon dioxide.
Among the Uranian satellites, Ariel appears to have the youngest surface, with the fewest impact craters, and Umbriel the oldest. Miranda has fault canyons 20 km (12 mi) deep, terraced layers, and a chaotic variation in surface ages and features. Miranda's past geologic activity is thought to have been driven by tidal heating at a time when its orbit was more eccentric than currently, probably as a result of a former 3:1 orbital resonance with Umbriel. Extensional processes associated with upwelling diapirs are the likely origin of Miranda's 'racetrack'-like coronae. Ariel is thought to have once been held in a 4:1 resonance with Titania.
Planetary Rings[edit]
The Uranian rings are composed of extremely dark particles, which vary in size from micrometres to a fraction of a metre. Thirteen distinct rings are presently known, the brightest being the ε ring. All except two rings of Uranus are extremely narrow – they are usually a few kilometres wide. The rings are probably quite young; the dynamics considerations indicate that they did not form with Uranus. The matter in the rings may once have been part of a moon (or moons) that was shattered by high-speed impacts. From numerous pieces of debris that formed as a result of those impacts, only a few particles survived, in stable zones corresponding to the locations of the present rings.