January 24, 1986: The 1st Close-Up Pictures of the Planet Uranus

January 24, 1986: The probe Voyager 2 sends the 1st close-up pictures of the planet Uranus back to Earth.

The 7th planet from the Sun, and the closest one that can't really be seen with the naked eye (except on a really clear night), it was discovered by British astronomer William Herschel in 1781. Just as the 5th planet, Jupiter, was named for the king of the Roman gods (known as Zeus to the Greeks), and the 6th was named for his father, the Titan Saturn, the 7th was named for Uranus (or "Ouranos" to the Greeks), father of Saturn and the other Titans.

Astronomers prefer to pronounce it "YUR-in-uss." Most people pronounce it "Yur-AY-niss," which leads to juvenile "Your anus" jokes. Not that "Urine-us" jokes would be much of an improvement.

Like Jupiter, Saturn, and what turned out to be the 8th planet, Neptune, Uranus is a "gas giant." Also like them, it has rings, the result of a moon that didn't quite form. The rings were not discovered until 1977, making it the 2nd planet, after the considerably more obvious Saturn, to be found to have them. But the most notable feature of Uranus, emphasized by the rings, is its 98-degree axis tilt, easily the most extreme in Earth's solar system.

It was also in 1977 that the Voyager 2 probe was launched, with the intent of providing the 1st close-up pictures of Uranus and Neptune. It did the job, reaching Uranus on January 24, 1986, and providing pictures of the blue gases of the atmosphere, the rings, and the planet's moons that did form, raising the total from the 5 that were previously established by telescopes to 27 -- which would have been a record, had not Pioneers 10 and 11 and Voyagers 1 and 2 not previously established far more than that for Jupiter and Saturn.

The 1st close-up pictures of a planet should have been a major event in science. But it got quickly forgotten, for 2 reasons: Two days later, the Super Bowl was played, with the Chicago Bears blowing out the New England Patriots; and, two days after that, NASA suffered its worst tragedy ever, the explosion of the Space Shuttle Challenger.

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January 24, 1986 was a Friday. Actress Mischa Barton was born.

Baseball was out of season. As I said, the Super Bowl was played 2 days later. There were 7 games played in the NBA:

* The New York Knicks lost to the Atlanta Hawks, 117-100 at The Omni in Atlanta. Dominique Wilkins scored 36 points for the Hawks.

* The Boston Celtics beat the Golden State Warriors, 135-114 at the Boston Garden.

* The Philadelphia 76ers beat the Cleveland Cavaliers, 121-114 at The Coliseum in the Cleveland suburb of Richfield, Ohio.

* The Milwaukee Bucks beat the Indiana Pacers, 117-92 at the Market Square Arena in Indianapolis.

* The Detroit Pistons beat the Dallas Mavericks, 129-120 at the Reunion Arena in Dallas. Kelly Tripucka, from Bloomfield, New Jersey, scored 32 for the Pistons. Mark Aguirre scored 35 in defeat for the Mavs.

* The San Antonio Spurs beat the Denver Nuggets, 113-98 at the McNichols Arena in Denver.

* And the Los Angeles Clippers beat their arch-rivals, and the defending NBA Champions, the Los Angeles Lakers, 120-109 at the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena. 

And there were 4 games played in the NHL:

* The New York Islanders beat the Washington Capitals, 6-5 at the Capital Centre in the Washington suburb of Landover, Maryland.

* The New Jersey Devils lost to the Edmonton Oilers, 7-6 at the Northlands Coliseum in Edmonton. The Devils blew leads of 5-3 and 6-4 against the defending Stanley Cup Champions. They held Wayne Gretzky scoreless in regulation. Unfortunately, Gretzky scored the winner with 3:31 left in overtime.

* The Chicago Black Hawks beat the Buffalo Sabres, 5-3 at the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium.

* And the Vancouver Canucks beat the Pittsburgh Penguins, 4-3 at the Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver.