seventh planet in distance from the Sun and the least massive of the solar system's four giant, or Jovian, planets, which also include Jupiter, Saturn, and Neptune. At its brightest, Uranus is just visible to the unaided eye as a blue-green point of...

Uranus was the first planet to be discovered that had not been known since antiquity. Although Uranus is just bright enough to be seen with the naked eye, and in fact had appeared in some early star charts as an unidentified star, English astronomer...

Ancient peoples saw five objects in the sky that had a special significance and appeared to wander around in relationship to the "fixed" stars; the word planet is derived from the greek word for wanderer. For centuries, astronomers believed our solar...

Seventh planet from the Sun. It was discovered in 1781 by William Herschel (&see; Herschel family) and named for the Greek god personifying heaven. A blue-green gas giant, it has almost 15 times the mass of Earth and over 50 times its volume. It is...

Uranus IPA: /ËjÊÉrÉnÉs, jÊËreɪnÉs/) is the seventh planet from the Sun and the third-largest and fourth-most massive planet in the solar system. It is named after the ancient Greek deity of the sky (Uranus, Οá½ρανÏς), the father of...