Shakespeare, Astronomy, the Mad King George, and William HerschelThe planet Uranus has 27 known and
Shakespeare, Astronomy, the Mad King George, and William HerschelThe planet Uranus has 27 known and named moons, the first two of which (Titania and Oberon) were discovered in 1787 by the man who discovered Uranus, Sir William Hershel, born on this day, November 15, 1738. Although Herschel believed he had seen as many as 6 moons and possibly a ring, nothing more was confirmed for another 50 years when the next two moons were discovered by William Lassell, which he named Ariel and Umbriel. Lassell deviated slightly from Herschel’s naming tradition and found Umbriel in Alexander Pope’s poem the Rape of the Lock. Since then all additional moons have been named for characters from either Shakespeare or Pope. But before he named anything after characters from Shakespeare, Herschel was famous for the discovery of Uranus. Herschel named his discovery George, oddly enough, to commemorate his new patron, King George III. At the time he said this: In the fabulous ages of ancient times the appellations of Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn were given to the Planets, as being the names of their principal heroes and divinities. In the present more philosophical era it would hardly be allowable to have recourse to the same method and call it Juno, Pallas, Apollo or Minerva, for a name to our new heavenly body. The first consideration of any particular event, or remarkable incident, seems to be its chronology: if in any future age it should be asked, when this last-found Planet was discovered? It would be a very satisfactory answer to say, ‘In the reign of King George the Third’.Few astronomers outside of England liked the name, however, and astronomers began proposing alternatives almost immediately. German astronomer Johann Elert Bode called it Uranus (Ancient Greek: Οὐρανός) after the Ancient Greek god of the sky, the logic being that as Saturn was the father of Jupiter, the new planet should be the father of Saturn. It wasn’t until the middle of the next century that atlases dropped Herschel’s name and adopted Uranus.Years later, Herschel would discover the moons of Uranus. And although he did not discover all of them (or even see most of them), his convention paved the way. First, moons named after characters from Shakespeare:A Midsummer Night’s Dream: Titania, Oberon, PuckThe Tempest: (Ariel), Miranda, Caliban, Sycorax, Prospero, Setebos, Stephano, Trinculo, Francisco, FerdinandKing Lear: CordeliaHamlet: OpheliaThe Taming of the Shrew: BiancaTroilus and Cressida: CressidaOthello: DesdemonaRomeo and Juliet: Juliet, MabThe Merchant of Venice: PortiaAs You Like It: RosalindMuch Ado About Nothing: MargaretThe Winter’s Tale: PerditaTimon of Athens: CupidNext, moons named from characters from Pope:The Rape of the Lock :Ariel, Umbriel, Belinda.Learn more about the plays (including plots, characters and full texts) at www.shakespeare-online.com. You can find Alexander Pope at www.poemhunter.com. You can also click on any of the links above for links to wikipedia.Image of Uranus’s moons to scale courtesy NASA, in the public domain -- source link
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