On Sunday Uranus will be at opposition– during that time, it will be at its closest approach to the Earth and its face will be fully illuminated by the Sun.
As a result, the blue-green planet will appear to be brighter than at any other point during the calendar year, making this weekend the best time to view it in all its glory. However, due to its distance, it will only appear as a tiny speck in all but the most powerful telescopes, making it extremely difficult to see. In fact, the only thing harder than seeing the the celestial body is knowing how to pronounce the planet’s name.
It’s Uranus. But is it pronounced “your anus” or “urine us”? We at redOrbit set out to do our best to try and solve the mystery (and put an end to the jokes told at the expense of this poor little part of the cosmos) once and for all.
Either way is correct, but which do astronauts prefer?
First, we consulted Merriam Webster, Dictionary.com and Cambridge Dictionaries online, all of which had handy audio pronunciations of the planet’s name (and, in the case of the Cambridge one, both American English and British English versions). In every case, the pronunciation of the planet’s name was the same – “urine us,” not “your anus.”
According to Space.com, the “urine us” version of the pronunciation is the one preferred by the folks at NASA. So that’s that, right? Well, not so fast. Start digging around and you’ll find many of the Web’s top astronomy experts, including About.com’s Dr. John P. Mills and Fraser Cain of Universe Today believe either pronunciation is technically correct.
Dr. Mills writes the version that places the emphasis on the long “u” while replacing the “a” sound with a short “e” is preferred over the “classic, potty mouth version” due largely because it “most closely resembles where the emphasis is placed in the Latin from which it is derived” (not to mention that it “saves some slight embarrassment and stops the students snickering.”)
“The standard way to pronounce Uranus among astronomers is to put the emphasis on the first syllable ‘ur’ and then say the second part ‘unus,’ This is the standard literary pronunciation… The truth is that all the different ways of pronouncing Uranus are perfectly fine, even the way that sounds a little dirty,” Cain added.
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Image credit: NASA
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