Uranus, the Magician Trivia Quiz

Answer: Aquarius

Uranus is considered the planet of innovation, rebellion, and sudden change, which aligns closely with Aquarius, the 11th sign of the zodiac. Aquarius is deeply associated with themes of:

Originality and independence
Humanitarian ideals
Progress and technology
Unconventional thinking
Freedom and reform

As one of the three air signs (along with Gemini and Libra), it makes sense that Aquarius would be connected with Uranus, a planet named for the ancient Greek god of the sky.

Before Uranus was discovered in 1781, the traditional ruler of Aquarius was Saturn.

Answer: A comet

Sir William Herschel had an interesting twist of fate when he first observed Uranus on March 13, 1781, thinking it was a comet. Using his homemade telescope, Herschel noticed an object that appeared larger than a star and seemed to move slowly against the background of fixed stars. This unusual behavior led him to suspect it was a comet rather than a planet.

Herschel reported his discovery as a comet to the Royal Society. However, as other astronomers - such as Anders Johan Lexell and Jérôme Lalande - made follow-up observations, they calculated its orbit and realized it was nearly circular, and not elongated like a comet's. By 1783, consensus had shifted: the object was indeed a new planet, the first discovered in modern times, expanding the known boundaries of the solar system and challenging long-held assumptions that all planets were visible to the naked eye.

Answer: King George III of the U.K.

Sir William Herschel didn't just discover Uranus - he also sparked a naming debate that lasted for decades. After confirming the object was a planet, Herschel proposed naming it Georgium Sidus in honour of King George III of Britain. His reasoning was practical and patriotic: the king had supported Herschel's work and granted him a royal pension, so Herschel wanted to show gratitude and secure continued favour (and this idea was also encouraged by the Astronomer Royal).

However, this name didn't sit well outside the United Kingdom. Continental astronomers preferred something more universal, suggesting names like "Herschel" to honor the discoverer or mythological names to match the other planets. Eventually, Johann Elert Bode championed the name Uranus, after the ancient Greek god of the sky, to maintain consistency with classical mythology. Over time, Bode's suggestion gained international acceptance, though in Britain, "Georgium Sidus" lingered in use well into the 19th century.

Answer: Greek

Bode played the key role in giving Uranus its name, but his choice wasn't as straightforward as it might seem. After Herschel's discovery, Bode argued that the new planet should follow the mythological pattern set by the others - Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn - all named after classical deities. He proposed "Uranus," the Greek god of the sky and father of Cronus (Saturn) and grandfather of Zeus (Jupiter), to maintain a sense of cosmic lineage: Saturn's father would naturally be farther out in the heavens.

So why not Caelus, the Roman equivalent of Uranus? Bode believed that using the Greek name preserved harmony with the existing planetary names, which were already a mix of Roman and Greek traditions but leaned heavily on mythological hierarchy. "Uranus" also sounded more distinctive and poetic to his contemporaries, fitting the grandeur of a newly discovered world.

Answer: True

Uranus didn't always carry the label 'ice giant.' For much of the 20th century, it was simply grouped with Jupiter and Saturn as a gas giant. But as scientists learned more about its composition - especially after the Voyager 2 flyby in 1986 - it became clear that Uranus was fundamentally different. Unlike Jupiter and Saturn, which are mostly hydrogen and helium, Uranus contains only about 20% hydrogen and helium by mass. The bulk of the planet is made of heavier elements like oxygen, carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur, locked up in compounds such as water, ammonia, and methane.

These substances, called 'ices' in planetary science, behave very differently under the extreme pressures inside Uranus. Instead of forming solid ice, they exist as hot, slushy fluids deep within the planet's mantle. This icy composition, combined with a relatively thin outer layer of gas, set Uranus apart from the true gas giants.

The term 'ice giant' began gaining traction in the 1990s, when researchers formalized the distinction between gas giants and ice giants to better reflect their different formation histories and internal structures. Today, Uranus and Neptune are recognized as a separate class of giant planets dominated by volatile ices rather than vast envelopes of hydrogen and helium.

Answer: Voyager 2

Voyager 2 holds a special place in the story of Uranus as it was the first spacecraft to visit the planet. On January 24, 1986, after a nine-year journey through our Solar System, Voyager 2 swept past Uranus at a distance of about 81,500 kilometers (50,600 miles). This brief encounter transformed our understanding of the seventh planet.

Before Voyager 2, Uranus was little more than a pale blue dot in telescopes. The flyby revealed 11 new moons, two new rings, and detailed images of its strange, featureless atmosphere. Scientists were surprised by its extreme axial tilt of 98 degrees, which makes Uranus spin almost on its side, and by its unexpectedly weak magnetic field, tilted and offset from the planet's center. Voyager 2 also measured frigid temperatures - around -224 degrees Celsius (-371 degrees Fahrenheit) - making Uranus the coldest planet in the solar system (yes, colder even than Neptune).

Though the visit lasted only a few hours, the data Voyager 2 sent back still shapes our understanding of ice giants today.

Answer: 84

Since Uranus' existence was confirmed by Sir William Herschel in 1781, the planet has revolved around the Sun more than once, completing each full orbit in 84.02 Earth years (in 1865 and 1949 with a third in 2033).

The other numbers shown are the orbital periods of Uranus' nearest neighbours:

Neptune's orbit - 164.79 Earth years (60,190 Earth days)
Saturn's orbit - 29.46 Earth years (10,756 Earth days)
Jupiter's orbit - 11.86 Earth years (4,333 Earth days)

Answer: It experiences continuous darkness for decades

Uranus experiences some of the most unusual seasons in the solar system, all thanks to its extreme axial tilt of (about) 98 degrees. Instead of spinning upright like Earth, Uranus rotates almost on its side, making its poles point nearly toward the Sun during parts of its orbit. This creates seasons that last for decades - about 21 years of continuous daylight at one pole while the other sits in darkness, before switching places halfway through its 84-year orbit.

Alternately, when Uranus reaches an equinox, sunlight falls along its equator, and the planet briefly experiences day-night cycles similar to Earth.

Answer: Stellar occultation

Uranus' rings were discovered using a clever observational technique called stellar occultation. Astronomers James L. Elliot, Edward W. Dunham, and Jessica Mink were watching Uranus pass in front of a distant star, expecting the star's light to dim only when the planet itself blocked it. Instead, they noticed something surprising: the star's brightness flickered several times before and after Uranus crossed their view.

Those tiny dips in starlight revealed the presence of narrow, opaque bands encircling the planet - rings that were invisible to telescopes at the time. By analyzing the timing and spacing of these flickers, scientists mapped out multiple rings, marking the first discovery of a ring system beyond Saturn.

Answer: Ariel

The moons of Uranus were discovered over more than two centuries, beginning with Titania and Oberon, spotted by William Herschel in 1787, just six years after he found the planet itself. For decades, these two were the only known companions of Uranus. Then, in 1851, astronomer William Lassell added Ariel and Umbriel to the list, expanding the family to four. Nearly a century later, in 1948, Gerard Kuiper discovered Miranda, the smallest of the five major moons, completing the set of large, spherical satellites.

As noted in the question, the naming tradition for Uranus' moons is unique among the planets of our Solar System: instead of mythological gods, they are named for characters in William Shakespeare's plays and from Alexander Pope's poem "The Rape of the Lock." Among the early discoveries, Ariel and Umbriel come from Pope's poem, while Titania, Oberon, and Miranda hail from Shakespeare. Of course, Ariel is also a character (a spirit) from Shakespeare's "The Tempest."

This literary theme continued with later discoveries, including moons like Belinda (also from Pope) and others found during the Voyager 2 flyby in 1986, which revealed eleven small inner moons such as Juliet, Cordelia, and Ophelia. More have been discovered since then, with Uranus' 29th moon discovered in August of 2025.