Uranus Is Highbrow

Over the years, we’ve learned a lot of interesting and off-color things about Uranus.

Uranus is tilted.

Uranus is cold.

We’ve only visited Uranus once, when Voyager 2 whooshed by on its way out of the solar system. Because of all these bizarre attributes of Uranus, we decided we’re going to send a craft to probe Uranus a second time.

When that probe arrives, it won’t find Uranus on its own. At least 29 bead-shaped objects reside in the neighborhood of Uranus. Unlike many aspects of Uranus, these bodies eschew bawdiness and lean into a sophisticated echelon.

As it turns out, Uranus is the literary, highbrow planet!

The history of the solar system’s names is a rather tangled path.

The first five planets (other than Earth) to receive names were Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. These bodies are visible to the naked eye, and civilizations as early as the Sumerians had noticed them in the firmament. The Sumerians, of course, didn’t refer to them with the names of Roman mythological deities, nor did other ancient peoples. The Greeks called them Hermes, Aphrodite, Ares, Zeus, and Cronus.

Greek and Roman mythologies share many characters, so when the Romans ascended, they employed their names for Hermes, Aphrodite, Ares, Zeus, and Cronus. Even after the Roman Empire dissolved, their language – Latin – remained the major tongue of science. Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn stuck, even when Latin’s usage ebbed.

When we invented telescopes, we discovered other planets. The other three orbs to receive planetary status at some point, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto, received godly names, as well, but only after lengthy disputes. Centuries had passed between the Romans and the new scientists of the Renaissance. There was no pretty, smooth continuum of planet discovery that allowed a convention to solidify. These new guys wanted their own names. William Herschel, who discovered Uranus, aimed to dub the planet after King George III. Urbain Le Verrier, one of the discoverers of Neptune, sought to name the planet after himself. Galileo had attempted to christen Jupiter’s moons after his benefactors, the Medicis.

So, it seems, scientists in this phase of planetary discovery were willing to discard the mythical naming convention or, perhaps, didn’t even view it as a convention at all. Still, a problem persisted. No one outside of France wanted to see a new planet named Le Verrier; most of the world certainly didn’t want one boasting the King of England’s moniker.

The mythological precedent became the happy medium, and we’re all the better for it. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have Uranus.

The gift of Uranus, as usual, is a little odd.

Every planet (and Pluto) was named after a Roman deity, except for Uranus, who was the Greek god of the primordial sky. How did Uranus buck the trend? The Roman version of Uranus is Caelus, so we could have been stuck saying that less appealing word. The Greek word for Uranus is Ouranos (this one certainly would have been acceptable!), which was Latinized as Uranus. When scientists congealed around Uranus instead of George’s Star, they apparently saw the Latin spelling and called it a day. They didn’t think to double-check if the name was the Roman deity or a translation of the Greek word. Whoops!

So, we ended up with one Greek god, Uranus.

Why Ouranos/Uranus/Caelus, though? Interestingly, the naming of some of the planets is not a random, mythological popularity contest. From Mars to Uranus, we have a nice family tree. Uranus begot Saturn, who fathered Jupiter, who had Mars!

As our scoping improved, the moons of these worlds received divine names, too. Jupiter’s many moons were named after the many lovers and descendants of the chief god. Saturn devoured all his children, so his satellites snagged the names of his brothers and sisters, the Titans and Giants, instead. When the number of moons surpassed that group – Saturn currently has 274 moons! – scientists moved to other mythological entities and giants from non-Roman and Greek, but still mythological, canons.

When it comes to mooning, once again, Uranus is special.

Uranus didn’t receive a universally accepted name for nearly 70 years after William Herschel discovered Uranus, by which point he had died.

By the 1850s, first Herschel and then other astronomers had uncovered several satellites of Uranus. Since William Herschel was gone, the onus fell to his son, John Herschel, also an astronomer, to classify the moons of Uranus. His father had been unsuccessful in naming Uranus after George III, but John Herschel took the opportunity to buck the Greek and Roman convention.

He looked to sources closer to home, sources that would titillate professors, playwrights, the prim, and the posh.

Uranus got Titania, Oberon, Ariel, and Umbriel. The first two are fairies from Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and the latter are sylphs – air spirits – from The Rape of the Lock by Alexander Pope (Ariel also happens to be a character in The Tempest).

Uranus went full English degree.

Herschel, a good Englishman, must have figured a deity of the sky would love his subordinates to be fairies, sprites, and sylphs.

Today, we know Uranus has 29 moons. We have identified two of them in the past few years, so they currently lack official names; however, the other 27 continue the literary tradition. After the first four, scientists stuck to fantastic characters from Shakespeare’s corpus, plus one more from Pope. Apparently, Alexander wasn’t as prolific with fairies and sprites.

The current list of satellites of Uranus:

Ariel – The Rape of the Lock (Pope); also appears in The Tempest (Shakespeare)
Belinda – The Rape of the Lock (Alexander Pope)
Bianca – The Taming of the Shrew (Shakespeare)
Caliban – The Tempest (Shakespeare)
Cordelia – King Lear (Shakespeare)
Cressida – Troilus and Cressida (Shakespeare)
Cupid – Timon of Athens (Shakespeare)
Desdemona – Othello (Shakespeare)
Ferdinand – The Tempest (Shakespeare)
Francisco – The Tempest (Shakespeare)
Juliet – Romeo and Juliet (Shakespeare)
Mab – Queen Mab of English folklore; referenced in Romeo and Juliet (Shakespeare)
Margaret – Much Ado About Nothing (Shakespeare)
Miranda – The Tempest (Shakespeare)
Oberon – A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Shakespeare)
Ophelia – Hamlet (Shakespeare)
Perdita – The Winter’s Tale (Shakespeare)
Portia – The Merchant of Venice (Shakespeare)
Prospero – The Tempest (Shakespeare)
Puck – A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Shakespeare)
Rosalind – As You Like It (Shakespeare)
Setebos – The Tempest (Shakespeare)
Stephano – The Tempest (Shakespeare)
Sycorax – The Tempest (Shakespeare)
Titania – A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Shakespeare)
Trinculo – The Tempest (Shakespeare)
Umbriel – The Rape of the Lock (Alexander Pope)

So, the next time someone looks down on Uranus or demeans your jokes about Uranus as sophomoric, pull out Uranus’ doctorate in English. Pope and the Bard love Uranus!