You’ve got a great chance to see the planet George this week in our skies, as it has a very close celestial hug with the best open star cluster in the heavens, the Pleiades star cluster, otherwise known as the “Seven Little Sisters.” In Greek mythology, the seven little sisters are the daughters of Atlas, the banished king of the gods who was pushed out by Zeus and his gang. Not only was Atlas banished he was given a never-ending task of holding up the world. I’m sure you’ve seen paintings of poor Atlas. The new gods had mercy on his daughters and transformed them into the bright star cluster that resembles a tiny Little Dipper.
(Mike Lynch)
The Pleiades jump out at you after evening twilight in the very low east-northeast sky. You can’t miss it. Most people can see six to seven stars with the naked eye but many more with even a small telescope or binoculars. It’s a young group of stars that were all born together out of a giant cloud of hydrogen gas about 100 million years ago. The young stars shine out at you from over 400 light-years away.
If you own a small telescope, direct it at the Pleiades and then slowly pan it to the lower right of the cluster about three and a half to four degrees. That’s roughly the width of three of your fingers held together at arm’s length. Look for a fuzzy bluish-green star. It certainly won’t be very bright but it’ll be the next brightest star to the lower right of the Pleiades. That’s the planet George, 1.7 billion miles from Earth… and that’s the closest George has been in about a year.
Before you think I’ve totally lost my celestial marbles, I have to tell you that planet George was the original name given to the planet we now know as Uranus, the seventh planet out from the sun. Uranus was discovered by the famous German-born British astronomer William Herschel on March 13, 1781. Previous to his discovery, Saturn was considered the most distant planet in our solar system. Herschel was a brilliant mathematician and composer, as well as a brilliant astronomer who constructed over 400 telescopes, including a huge 40-ft. telescope, the biggest one in the world at the time. He was also a very loyal subject of British King George III, so he named his new planet George in the king’s honor. Not only was he fond of King George, but the monarch provided funding for all of his astronomical adventures. The name George for Herschel’s new planet didn’t fly for too long in the rest of the astronomical world , and eventually, the name of the planet was changed to Uranus, after the Greek god who was the grandfather of Zeus, king of the gods. By the way, the proper pronunciation of Uranus is YOUR-uh-nus, not your-RAIN-nus. When it’s mispronounced, it always gets giggles from at least some school kids.
Uranus is one of the large gaseous giant planets, mainly made up of hydrogen and helium gas, but it also has water, ammonia, and methane, which give it a bluish appearance. It’s over 31,000 miles in diameter, about four times the diameter of Earth. It rotates on its axis much faster than the Earth, once every 17.5 hours, and what’s really weird is that the axis of rotation is tilted on its side. Uranus’s north and south poles are where the equators are on the other planets in our solar system, on the same plane as its orbital path around the sun. By the way, it takes Uranus 84 Earth years to make just one circuit around the sun.
If you’re planning to travel to George anytime soon in a spaceship that has a top speed of 2,000 mph, about the same speed as a fast bullet, it’ll take you just under 103 years to get there!
Mike Lynch is an amateur astronomer and retired broadcast meteorologist for WCCO Radio in Minneapolis/St. Paul. He is the author of “Stars: a Month by Month Tour of the Constellations,” published by Adventure Publications and available at bookstores and adventurepublications.net. Mike is available for private star parties. You can contact him at mikewlynch@comcast.net.
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