Planet Uranus Caught On VLT (Very Large Telescope)

BBC ^ | 12-31-2002

[Kerensky]

Ok, no Uranus jokes, BUTT...

Southern Observatory's parANAL Observatory

[Hacksaw]

Where are the pics of the Klingons circling Uranus?

[Alberta's Child]

I thought they discovered the rings of Uranus by way of a chance observation of an event called an "occultation," in which a star passes behind another object and disappears from view for a period of time. This kind of thing is common with the moon because it is so close, but is less common with the planets.

I seem to recall reading that someone was observing such an event with Uranus about 20 years ago, but when the star passed behind Uranus it didn't just disappear like it normally would. It flickered briefly and then brightened again before it disappeared, then did the same thing when it re-emerged on the other side of the planet. This is what led to speculation that there was a ring around the planet that had never been seen before.

[Congressman Billybob]

The same is true of the name "Bolshoi Ballet." All it means is "Big Ballet." Recall that the Bolshevics were called that because they claimed to be a "majority" though they were never close to that. It was a double pun for me to refer to Li'l Tommy Daschle as the Bolshevic (excuse me, majority) Leader of the Senate.

Fabulous picture of Uranus, BTW.

Congressman Billybob

Click for latest column on UPI, "Incision Decision in the Senate" (Not yet on UPI wire, or FR.)

As the politician formerly known as Al Gore has said, Buy my book, "to Restore Trust in America"

[DAnconia55]

Doc told me this but said he was gonna use a very small telescope....

[dfwgator]

Did they find any gerbils in Uranus? (I know, I'm going straight to hell for that one) ;)

[<1/1,000,000th%]

Very cool! Great post!

[Vic3O3]

Is Uranus the planet that we discovered had rings only about 20 years ago? And we only found that out because of one of the probes that did a fly-by Yes.

And which one has the big blue storm? Should be Uranus.

And which one had the meteors hitting it a few years back? Jupiter was hit by the fragmented comet Shoemaker-Levy a few years back.

[texson66]

You're correct! Uranus Rings

[virgil]

This is a remarkable picture for an earth bound telescope.

[blam]

"Jupiter was hit by the fragmented comet Shoemaker-Levy a few years back."

The suprising thing about the impacts is that the plumes extended 2,000 miles back into space. This did not fit the expectations what-so-ever.

[Dan Day]

EVERY time I read one of these stories I get sidetracked in laughing at the name!

Isaac Asimov even wrote a small essay on the topic. He pointed out that the name "Uranus" was a cosmic joke no matter how you tried to pronounce it.

Said "yur-AIN-us", it sounds like "your anus".

But a short-lived attempt to change the pronunciation to "YUR-i-nus" was abandoned when it was realized that this was the same pronunciation as the word "urinous", which means "related to urine or urination".

So either way you look at it, the poor planet is going to be the, um, butt of jokes.

[blam]

Over here. Check out this picture.

[Dan Day]

Next in the series is the BFT.

*ROFL!*

[RightWhale]

The image has been my wallpaper since last week. The performance of this new telescope is fantastic!

[SGCOS]

Maybe it's me, but where is the light source(s) coming from?

[RightWhale]

That's a wide-angle shot. Angles are distorted when the image is projected onto a flat surface.

[new cruelty]

looks like the light source is from the camera's point of view.

[Mr. K]

reminds me of my favorite line in Armageddon: "What's Up < guy played by Bruce Willis >? NASA find oil on Uranus?"

[Mr. K]

makes you wonder just when Mars was hit- No explanation offered so far can explain those millions of rocks scattered so evenly across the entire surface of the planet.

I say a huge hit, followed by years of rocks tumbling down