I sh*t you not. Story here. Apparently scientists previously believed that Uranus was too unstable to hold asteroids, and that they would just tumble out, but new data says they’ll be stuck there for at least 70,000 years.
it’s got roids alright.
70,000 years is nothing. What happens then, they just pop out the other side?
damn Kling-ons
Well, my anus has inflamed hemorrhoids.
Celestial dingleberries are the best kind.
Use “Preparation A” for asteroids!
Yeah, make fun of the name Uranus all you want. But William Herschel, who discovered it, named it George (actually Georgium Sidus) in a colossal act of sucking-up to his patron, King George III of Britain. The British Nautical Almanac Office was still calling it that as late as 1850. Some of Herschel’s contemporaries thought he ought to get the credit, and wanted to call it Herschel. Others wanted to bring in the classical allusion, but mixed with the British name, and call it Neptune George, which would have made it the first planet with a two-part name. Some wanted Neptune Great Britain, which is a moutthful.
Eventually Johann Bode (he of Bode’s Law) suggested Uranus as a compromise and a slick bit of mythology rationalizing (Saturn was the father of Jupiter, so it made sense for the next planet out to be Saturn’s father).
I’m not going to get started on all the doouble entendre uses of “asteroids”
Oh man, it would be completely hilarious to have a planet named George. I wish they’d kept that.
Actually, the pronunciation now favored (YUR-a-nos) is closer to the original Greek (HU-ra-nos) than the old “Your Anus.”
The current pronunciation caught on in the late '80s as a result of the Voyager fly-bys: Nobody wanted to hear Dan Rather announce on the CBS Evening News that scientists had discovered a ring of dark matter around Your Anus.
[abominable snowman]
“I will name him George, and I will hug him, and pet him, and squeeze him”
[/abominable snowman]
FWIW, my 1920s edition OED shows one pronunciation, “yoo-RAN-us.” I wonder if the pronunciation “yoo-RAIN-us” might have been influenced by the word “uranium.”
National Lampoon had a piece about that back in the early 1980s (the pronunciation goes back much earlier than the Voyager fly-bys – people have always beensqueamish), protesting that changing the pronunciation won’t help with the Beavis and Butthead types. If it’s not “Your Anus”, but rather “Urine US” or “You’re IN Us”, then what have you gained?
Damn, maybe we SHOULD have gone with “George”
These sorts of pronunciation ambiguities are why I avoid staying at the Oceanus Motel.
Personally, I leave off the Y entirely when I pronounce it (it’s not like it’s spelled with a Y, anyway), something like “OO-ran-oos”. Which is both reasonably close to the Greek, and avoids all scatological implications.
That’s a vicious slander! Uranus is a planet for goodness sake! It’s respectable. It’s not like it goes around consorting the likes of Pluto or orbiting through the Oort cloud when nobody’s looking. Next you’ll be saying it’s getting banged by comets like it’s no better than Jupiter, the slut. If your mother were here young man, she’d wash your continents out with soap, I’m sure.
I suspect you just enjoy the moment when the person you’re talking to pauses and then blurts, “Oh! You mean yer-AY-nus!”
Ointment.
That’s what you need.
Ointment.
Try mayonnaise.
“I need… unguent.”