# Uranus has trapped asteroids **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 30, 2013, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uranus-has-trapped-asteroids/667586 "2013-08-30T16:27:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2013, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uranus-has-trapped-asteroids/667586/1 "2013-08-30T16:27:39Z")
I sh\*t you not. Story [here](http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/space/stories/trojan-asteroid-is-a-first-for-planet-uranus). 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. ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2013, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uranus-has-trapped-asteroids/667586/2 "2013-08-30T16:35:13Z")
it’s got roids alright. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2013, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uranus-has-trapped-asteroids/667586/3 "2013-08-30T16:46:28Z")
70,000 years is nothing. What happens then, they just pop out the other side? ---
**Author:** ![Frazzled](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frazzled/32/3368_2.png) [@Frazzled](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frazzled)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2013, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uranus-has-trapped-asteroids/667586/4 "2013-08-30T16:48:03Z")
damn Kling-ons ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2013, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uranus-has-trapped-asteroids/667586/5 "2013-08-30T16:59:13Z")
Well, my anus has inflamed hemorrhoids. ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2013, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uranus-has-trapped-asteroids/667586/6 "2013-08-30T17:01:23Z")
Celestial dingleberries are the best kind. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2013, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uranus-has-trapped-asteroids/667586/7 "2013-08-30T17:14:50Z")
Use “Preparation A” for asteroids! ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2013, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uranus-has-trapped-asteroids/667586/8 "2013-08-30T17:22:26Z")
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” ---
**Author:** ![Don\_t\_Panic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/don_t_panic/32/398_2.png) [@Don\_t\_Panic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_t_Panic)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2013, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uranus-has-trapped-asteroids/667586/9 "2013-08-30T17:57:03Z")
Oh man, it would be completely hilarious to have a planet named George. I wish they’d kept that. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2013, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uranus-has-trapped-asteroids/667586/10 "2013-08-30T18:33:36Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Yeah, make fun of the name _Uranus_ all you want. 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. ---
**Author:** ![BubbaDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bubbadog/32/333_2.png) [@BubbaDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BubbaDog)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2013, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uranus-has-trapped-asteroids/667586/11 "2013-08-30T18:53:26Z")
> [@Martian Bigfoot](#): > > Oh man, it would be completely hilarious to have a planet named George. I wish they’d kept that. [abominable snowman] “I will name him George, and I will hug him, and pet him, and squeeze him” [/abominable snowman] ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2013, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uranus-has-trapped-asteroids/667586/12 "2013-08-30T19:54:13Z")
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.” ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2013, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uranus-has-trapped-asteroids/667586/13 "2013-08-30T23:54:33Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > 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. _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” ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2013, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uranus-has-trapped-asteroids/667586/14 "2013-08-31T01:24:14Z")
These sorts of pronunciation ambiguities are why I avoid staying at the [Oceanus Motel](http://www.oceanusmotel.com/). ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2013, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uranus-has-trapped-asteroids/667586/15 "2013-08-31T01:44:57Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Barking\_Dog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Barking\_Dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barking_Dog)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2013, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uranus-has-trapped-asteroids/667586/16 "2013-08-31T22:16:04Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2013, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uranus-has-trapped-asteroids/667586/17 "2013-08-31T22:27:54Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > 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. I suspect you just enjoy the moment when the person you’re talking to pauses and then blurts, “Oh! You mean yer-AY-nus!” 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2013, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uranus-has-trapped-asteroids/667586/18 "2013-09-01T00:57:05Z")
> [@](#): > > Uranus has trapped asteroids Ointment. That’s what you need. Ointment. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2013, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uranus-has-trapped-asteroids/667586/19 "2013-09-01T02:31:29Z")
> [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](#): > > Ointment. > > That’s what you need. > > Ointment. Try mayonnaise. 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2013, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uranus-has-trapped-asteroids/667586/20 "2013-09-01T03:22:44Z")
“I need… unguent.”