Here are some facts for this day. You are welcome to log your interesting, quirky or fun fact/s with your log.
On This Day - March 13th 1781
Seventh planet from the sun, Uranus, is discovered.
Uranus is the seventh planet from the sun, with its mean distance from the sun being 2869.6 million km. A gas giant, it is third largest by diameter and fourth largest by mass. Uranus is made up mostly of rocks and various ices, with only about 15% hydrogen and a little helium. The planet was discovered by William Herschel on 13 March 1781, who reported it on 26 April 1781. Prior to Herschel's discovery, the planet was mistakenly identified as a star.
Herschel originally named it Georgium Sidus in honour of King George III of Great Britain but when it was noted that sidus means star and not planet, he renamed it the Georgian Planet, a name which was not accepted outside of Britain. Discussions amongs astronomers came up with a variety of names; the name Uranus was proposed by Johann Elert Bode, editor of the periodical, the 'Berliner Astronomisches Jahrbuch'. Because the name conformed to the classical mythology-derived names of other known planets, it was readily adopted by the scientific community.
William Herschel is also credited with discovering two of Uranus's 27 known moons, Titania and Oberon, on 11 January 1787.