Why so little is known about Uranus. Plus, breakthroughs against snakebites
|  | Thursday, April 21, 2022 | | | | |
 | | IMAGE BY NASA/JPL | | By Victoria Jaggard
Astronomer William Herschel almost torpedoed one of the most beloved jokes among space nerds. In 1781 he discovered a far-off object that he at first assumed was a comet or a star. A couple years later, observations made by fellow astronomer
Johann Elert Bode confirmed that the object was actually a planet. Herschel made a bid to name the new world after King George III of England. But Bode’s idea won out. Every other planet was named for a deity, he argued, so this one should take the moniker of the Greek god of the sky: Uranus (pictured above).
More than 240 years later, we know surprisingly little about the seventh planet from the sun. But as Nadia Drake reports, that may be about to change. In a report released this week, planetary astronomers have recommended to NASA and the National Science Foundation that they make a mission to Uranus their top priority for the next 10 years. The proposed mission would include a small probe that would explore the planet’s atmosphere and an orbiter that would fly through the Uranian system for years, investigating the oddball planet and its retinue of 27 moons.
There’s good reason to set our sights on this icy world. Of the thousands of planets found orbiting other stars, many seem to be about the same size as Uranus. That means unlocking its secrets could help us understand one of the most common types of worlds in the cosmos. “The returns for this mission will be so rich, they will touch on almost every field of planetary science,” says Heidi Hammel of the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy.
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| | My spot: An elephant seal bull looks happy about his claimed territory in California’s Point Reyes National Seashore. Once hunted to near extinction for their oil-rich blubber, the elephant seal has made a comeback thanks to conservation efforts from the U.S. and Mexico. A study shows that the male elephant seal can recognize and distinguish calls from various other male seals, Nat Geo reports. | | | |
| EARTH MONTH: ARTICLE OF THE DAY | |
MAP EDITORS: MARTIN GAMACHE AND SOREN WALLJASPER
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 | | PHOTOGRAPH BY MARA SANCHEZ RENERO | | | Open wide: Almost 140,000 people die each year from snakebites, many of them treatable with antivenoms. Throughout the 20th century, researchers in Mexico developed more than a dozen of them that are used in other nations. The country’s innovation and its scorpion populations have helped propel it as a model for other countries with lots of animal bites and stings, Brent Crane reports. (Pictured above, scientists force a snake to bite down hard on an object to release its venom.) | | | |
 | PHOTOGRAPH BY CHRISTIAN HEEB, LAIF/REDUX
| | | Starry nights: Get out those telescopes. Dark-sky tourism is on the rise. More cities and towns are preserving their night skies. A growing list of Dark Sky Preserves in the U.S., like Grand Canyon National Park pictured here, helps travelers find places with the least amount of light pollution—and the best stargazing, Nat Geo reports. | | | |
| This newsletter was curated and edited by David Beard, Jen Tse, and Monica Williams. Do you have an idea, a link, a great stargazing spot? Let us know at david.beard@natgeo.com. Thanks for reading! | |
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