I, Too, Wear Rings!
Riddles are little poems or phrases that pose a question that needs answering. Riddles frequently rhyme, but this is not a requirement.
Some have rings, all gorgeously bedecked;
I, too, wear rings, that seers did not detect.
One, Hershel saw two centuries ago.
A baker's dozen, now, the seekers know.
My brother wears more dazzling rings, quite fine;
When he turns, his rings all brightly shine.
Twenty-seven minions make my court;
Some, Bard-named; some with the rings cavort.
Georgium, Hershel's choice, once had the nod,
But now, I'm namesake to an ancient god.
What am I called?
HintYou can't always see me!
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Answer
The planet, Uranus
It was once believed that Saturn was the only planet that had rings, but it is now known that Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune also have less spectacular ring systems. In 1789, using a telescope he had designed and made, Sir William Herschel detected what he believed to be a red ring around the planet he was observing. When he first identified Uranus in 1789, he thought it was a comet. A system of nine rings was catalogued in 1979 by Elliot, Dunham, and Mink. Voyager photographed two more rings in 1986, and the Hubble Space Telescope detected two distantly placed rings, bringing the known total to 13. Uranus has 27 known satellites; they are named after characters in the works of Shakespeare and Alexander Pope. Portia, Rosalind, and Mab appear to share orbits with members of the ring system. Hershel wanted to call the planet Georgium Sidus (George's Star), to honor his patron, King George III, but this nomenclature was not popular outside of Britain, and the name Uranus, after the Greek sky god, came into common use.
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