• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer
Zippy Facts Logo

Zippy Facts

Interesting Random Facts

  • Animals
  • Culture
  • Firsts
  • Food
  • Geography
  • Health
  • History
  • Inventions
  • Language
  • Mythology
  • Odds
  • People
  • Religion
  • Science
  • Space
  • Universe
  • World
You are here: Home / Space / When Was Uranus Discovered, How Did the Planet Uranus Get Its Name, and What Does Uranus Mean In Greek?

When Was Uranus Discovered, How Did the Planet Uranus Get Its Name, and What Does Uranus Mean In Greek?

April 2, 2020 by Karen Hill

William Herschel (1738-1822) was a musician who began to study the mathematical foundation of harmony.

Mathematics led him to astronomy, and, with the help of his sister, Caroline, Herschel set out to map every star in the northern hemisphere with a magnitude of 4 or greater.

Through his detailed and methodical observations, Herschel found and identified Uranus as a planet in 1781.

The planet Uranus was named after the ancient Greek deity of the sky Uranus (Οὐρανός), the father of Cronus (Saturn) and grandfather of Zeus (Jupiter).

The ancient Greeks considered Uranus to be primordial, and is believed to be the offspring of the ancient gods Aether and Hemera, Air and Day.

The word Uranus comes from “Ouranos” (Οὐρανός), which is the Greek word for sky.

Related Facts

  • Who Were the Titans In Greek Mythology and Which One of the Twelve Titans Attacked Uranus?
  • How Did Sir Frederick William Herschel Discover the Planet Uranus and What Did Herschel Do Before Astronomy?
  • Who Discovered Infrared and Ultraviolet Radiation and When?
  • What Is the Seventh Planet From the Sun, How Big Is Uranus, and How Far Is the Planet Uranus From the Sun?
  • What Was Unusual About Herschel’s First Great Discovery and How Did the Planet Uranus Get Its Name?
  • What Is Uranus Made of and Why Does the Planet Uranus Have Such a Low Internal Temperature?

Filed Under: Space

About Karen Hill

Karen Hill is a freelance writer, editor, and columnist. Born in New York, her work has appeared in the Examiner, Yahoo News, Buzzfeed, among others.

Previous Post: « How Is the Planet Uranus’s Rotation Tilted On Its Axis and What Does a Retrograde Rotation Mean?
Next Post: How Many Satellites Orbit Saturn and How Many Moons Does the Planet Saturn Have? »

Footer

Follow

  • Facebook
  • Flickr
  • GitHub
  • Google+
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Medium
  • Pinterest
  • StumbleUpon
  • Tumblr
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Categories

Accomplishments Animals Culture Firsts Food Geography Health History Inventions Language Mythology Odds People Religion Science Space Universe World Your Body

About

Zippy Facts empowers the world by serving educational content that is accessible to everyone.

A tribute to growing up, zippyfacts.com showcases interesting and unusual facts about the world.

Our mission is to use technology to facilitate knowledge transfer and sharing.

Copyright © 2020 Zippy Facts

  • About Us
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy