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Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Uranus

Now, no snickering for all you kids who still remember when you first learned about this planet! And before I tell you about the planet itself, know that it's named for Uranus, who, with Gaia, were the parents of the Titans and the ancestors of most of the Greek gods.

According to Greek mythology, Uranus mated with Gaia but despised the children that resulted from their unions (hello? Quit havin' sex with her, dude, right?). Supposedly he hated them so much he threw the youngest into Tartarus (a dungeon of suffering and torment deep within the earth's crust). This caused Gaia so much distress that she got Cronos to ambush Uranus, castrate him, and throw his testicles into the sea (owch!).*

As for the planet upon which this painful myth is based, it is the seventh from the sun, it is sometimes called the blue planet, and it spins on an axis that often points directly at the sun, thought to be a result of a collison early in its history. It also has 27 known moons, no solid surface (it's considered a gas giant), and gets its blue-green color from methane gas: "Sunlight is reflected from Uranus's cloud tops, which lie beneath a layer of methane gas. As the reflected sunlight passes back through this layer, the methane gas absorbs the red portion of the light, allowing the blue portion to pass through and resulting in the blue-green color that we see."**


* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uranus_%28mythology%29
 **http://science.nationalgeographic.com/science/space/solar-system/uranus-article/




40 comments:

  1. Note to self: must stop snickering and thinking up juvenile jokes about Uranus....! LOL!!

    It's a beauty of a planet - oh but what a sordid and unhappy and bloody myth behind the name!! Take care
    x

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  2. We can't chuckle even a little? I'm owed a little laughter after that castration story.

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    1. Oh, alright, have yourself a little snicker :)

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  3. Don't you just love the Greeks? First soap operas!

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  4. Don't remember the story about Uranus or at least the last part. Don't think they taught it in school.

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    1. Yeah, I don't remember that part either!

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  5. Dang, you read my mind.

    Thanks for the info. :)

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  6. mythology is filled with caring and tender mothers and fathers :)

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  7. I think we should rename these planets and such that have violent and unhappy names to names like Ward, Wally, Andy or Aunt Bea...Jed...Planet Jed, yeah...Gentle Ben, Ellie May...start some new mythological beings - or maybe we have?

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    1. That would be funny..."Oh, look, I can see Wally in the sky, and there, right next to him is Jed..."

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  8. The Greeks and their myths . . .always violent, unhappy, and messed up in love and relationships . . . it makes me wonder if their lives were that messy too.
    Nice info on the myth and the planet!

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    1. yeah, they certainly don't behave like Gods...

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  9. Thanks for teaching me something new! I really need to catch up on my Greek mythology...

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    1. I find Greek Mythology very interesting; it was one of my favorite subjects in school and one I don't think they teach anymore.

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  10. Snickering? What snickering? I wasn't snickering. All right, fine, so I was snickering. You caught me.

    I had no idea it had that many moons.

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    1. I know; that's a lot of moons! And go ahead and snicker a little if you want. What the heck. We're all adults here, right?

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  11. Gotta love Greek mythology... So much DRAMA...

    I had no idea this planet wasn't solid. See we can learn something new every day... Thanks for the lesson Marcy.

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    1. How true! And I didn't know Uranus wasn't solid either. I've learned a lot doing this particular challenge!

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  12. Uranus had that castration coming. Delightful details; thanks for sharing.

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    1. He may well have and glad you enjoyed :)

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  13. This comment has been removed by the author.

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    1. I wasn't done with my comment and accidentally hit the submit button. I was going to say that I do enjoy Greek mythology, even if those gods are crazy. :)
      Nutschell
      www.thewritingnut.com

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    2. They WERE crazy! And spiteful and childish and promiscuous and...sorta human.

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  14. I think the gods were made to be so crazy so that all the misbehaving humans at the time didn't seem so bad in comparison.

    Which is why all our gods now are perfect. What's that you say? We're trying very hard to make the mainstream atheist? Does that mean we don't exist?!?

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  15. Those Roman gods didn't fool around....if they didn't like you, they went all out in destroying you!

    O.k, I didn't snicker when I saw the post title...but I did think about it :)

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    1. Heck, I snickered when I wrote the post!

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  16. A eunoch named Uranus? Those nutty Greeks. :P

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  17. The gods must be crazy...good old Greek mythology!

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  18. I was just looking up Cronos. The Greeks had some crazy mythologies.

    Uranus is a beautiful planet!

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    1. Greek Mythology is awesome. Not too many happy endings though.

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  19. now that is one beautiful planet--thanks for the wealth of knowledge you are sharing--it's great fun!

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  20. What a colorful and ouch-filled history of a beautiful planet. And, hmm, I kinda, sorta remember the snickering Back Then, LOL!

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