|TOWARDS THE SEVENTH PLANET|

Leaving Saturn behind, along with its twin, that was sacrificed for the close encounter with Titan, Voyager 2 begins its solitary journey towards Uranus. The distance that separates the two planets is enormous and the crossing will take 4 and a half years. The distance is so great that, once reaching the rendez-vous point, the signals issued by the probe will take two and a half hours before reaching the Earth: twice the time it took from Saturn. In fact, Uranus is about 3 000 000 kilometers away from the Sun, 19 times more than the distance that separates the Earth from its star. From here, the Sun appears as a small disk, but so bright that it is more than one thousand times as bright as the full Moon seen from our planet. Uranus was unknown to the Ancients, because Saturn is the farthest body in the solar system that can be observed easily without a telescope. But even with a telescope it is still difficult to find. It was discovered on a clear night in March 1781, when the German astronomer Wilhelm Herschel, scanning the sky, noted that an unknown point had entered the plane of his instrument. Was it an unidentified star or something else? He studied the mysterious object for many nights and finally saw that it moved against the background of stars. Then he thought he had discovered a comet and soon all the astronomers in Europe began looking for Herschel's "comet". However, it was soon noted that its behavior was rather strange: instead of getting closer to the Sun, it moved in an almost circular orbit a great distance beyond Saturn. Therefore, it was a planet whose distance from the Sun practically doubled the extension of the solar system known at that time. Herschel, who lived in England, wanted to call the seventh planet the Georgian star, in honor of King George III. Others suggested to call it Herschel's planet. But it was the German astronomer Johann Bode to suggest the mythological name that was then accepted by everyone: Uranus, father of Saturn and god of the heavens.
Leaving Saturn behind, along with its twin, that was sacrificed for the close encounter with Titan, Voyager 2 begins its solitary journey towards Uranus. The distance that separates the two planets is enormous and the crossing will take 4 and a half years. The distance is so great that, once reaching the rendez-vous point, the signals issued by the probe will take two and a half hours before reaching the Earth: twice the time it took from Saturn. In fact, Uranus is about 3 000 000 kilometers away from the Sun, 19 times more than the distance that separates the Earth from its star. From here, the Sun appears as a small disk, but so bright that it is more than one thousand times as bright as the full Moon seen from our planet. Uranus was unknown to the Ancients, because Saturn is the farthest body in the solar system that can be observed easily without a telescope. But even with a telescope it is still difficult to find. It was discovered on a clear night in March 1781, when the German astronomer Wilhelm Herschel, scanning the sky, noted that an unknown point had entered the plane of his instrument. Was it an unidentified star or something else? He studied the mysterious object for many nights and finally saw that it moved against the background of stars. Then he thought he had discovered a comet and soon all the astronomers in Europe began looking for Herschel's "comet". However, it was soon noted that its behavior was rather strange: instead of getting closer to the Sun, it moved in an almost circular orbit a great distance beyond Saturn. Therefore, it was a planet whose distance from the Sun practically doubled the extension of the solar system known at that time. Herschel, who lived in England, wanted to call the seventh planet the Georgian star, in honor of King George III. Others suggested to call it Herschel's planet. But it was the German astronomer Johann Bode to suggest the mythological name that was then accepted by everyone: Uranus, father of Saturn and god of the heavens.