Uranus was the first planet discovered that was not known in ancient times, though it had actually been seen many times before but ignored as simply another star (the earliest recorded sighting was in 1690 when John Flamsteed cataloged it as 34 Tauri). Sir William Herschel discovered the planet in 1781, and originally called it Georgium Sidus (George's Star) in honour of King George III of England. French astronomers began calling it Herschel before German Johann Bode proposed the name Uranus, after the Greek god. The name didn't come into common usage until around 1850.

The seventh most distant planet from the Sun It is bluish green because of methane in the atmosphere. In fact the C:H ratio is 30 to 40 time the solar value. Its atmosphere is composed of hydrogen and helium, its mantle is water and ammonia ice, and its core is rocky. Uranus has 9 faint rings. Ten new satellites were discovered by Voyager 2 when it flew by in 1985. The rings of Uranus are designated 1986U2R, 6, 5, 4, a,b,g,d , 1986U1R, and e. Enhanced Voyager 2 images of the l ring found it to break up into 5 major arcs of roughly equal length. Uranus has 17 known moons: Ariel, Belinda, Bianca, Cordelia, Cressida, Desdemona, Juliet, Miranda, Oberon, Ophelia, Portia, Puck, Rosalind, Titania, and Umbriel. Two distant satellites in non-equatorial