Blue ring 1st seen at Saturn [top] — now found at Uranus [bottom]
The outermost ring of Uranus, discovered just last year, is bright blue, making it only the second known blue ring in the solar system, according to a report this week in the journal Science.
Perhaps not coincidentally, both blue rings are associated with small moons.
“The outer ring of Saturn is blue and has Enceladus right smack at its brightest spot, and Uranus is strikingly similar, with its blue ring right on top of Mab’s orbit,” said Imke de Pater, professor of astronomy at the University of California, Berkeley. “The blue color says that this ring is predominantly submicron-sized material, much smaller than the material in most other rings, which appear red.”
Now you know why.
I thought there would be a brown ring around Uranus. 🙂
Man… I gotta stop partying with Papa Smurf!
Maybe Uranus needs more lube…
I asked my wife to stand up for a minute. She asked Why, of course, so I showed her the headline. Man that smarts!!!
Ok, Ed, ya happy now?
Tee-Hee.
I saw that one web site chickened out and only referred to it as the “7th planet”. I guess they didn’t want any Uranus jokes…
Well, if you want the link with the full headline…
http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2006/04/06_bluering.shtml
Sorry, Angel — I didn’t realize till I saw your Comment that I’d left out my link. Just put it back: Science Daily, who took it from the Berkeley press release.
Cripes!
I THINK one of the original NAMES was U-ran-us…Until some English person had to Pun it, or mis-read it.
Wiki:
The stressed syllable in the name Uranus is properly the first, because the penultimate vowel a is short (ūrănŭs) and in an open syllable. Such syllables are never stressed in Latin.[32] The historically correct pronunciation of the name by English speakers is therefore [ˈjʊ.rə.nəs]. The historically incorrect pronunciation, [jʊˈɹeɪ.nəs], with stress on the second syllable and a “long a” (ūrānŭs) has become very common.