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What are some interesting facts about Uranus?
Is Uranus a gas giant?
What is Uranus made of?
Is Uranus a cold planet?
- Uranus is too dim for ancient civilizations to have seen it. It is the seventh planet from the Sun (Order of the planets from the Sun: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto (the dwarf planet)).
- This is why there has been no mention of Uranus sightings before William Herschel saw it through his telescope in 1781. He had been surveying stars, including those that were ten times dimmer than visible stars.
- When he looked through the telescope and saw a strange, slow-spinning object, Herschel wasn’t sure what he was looking at was a planet. The British astronomer thought it was a comet or a star.
- In 1781, William Herschel, gave it the name “Georgium Sidus” after King George III. This naming was controversial in the astronomical society, and Uranus (Greek god father of Roman Saturn) was proposed in 1782 to follow the mythology so that it would not stand out from the other planets.
Uranus is a very cold and windy world. The ice giant is surrounded by 13 faint rings and 28 small moons. Uranus rotates at a nearly 90-degree angle from the plane of its orbit. This unique tilt makes Uranus appear to spin sideways, orbiting the Sun like a rolling ball.
Uranus is the seventh planet from the Sun. It is a gaseous cyan-coloured ice giant. Most of the planet is made of water, ammonia, and methane in a supercritical phase of matter, astronomy calls "ice" or volatiles.
- Uranus was officially discovered by Sir William Herschel in 1781. It is too dim to have been seen by the ancients. At first Herschel thought it was a comet, but several years later it was confirmed as a planet.
- Uranus turns on its axis once every 17 hours, 14 minutes. The planet rotates in a retrograde direction, opposite to the way Earth and most other planets turn.
- Uranus makes one trip around the Sun every 84 Earth years. During some parts of its orbit one or the other of its poles point directly at the Sun and get about 42 years of direct sunlight.
- Uranus is often referred to as an “ice giant” planet. Like the other gas giants, it has a hydrogen upper layer, which has helium mixed in. Below that is an icy “mantle, which surrounds a rock and ice core.
- Structure and Surface
- Time on Uranus
- Uranus' Neighbors
- Quick History
- What Does Uranus Look like?
Uranus is surrounded by a set of 13 rings.Uranus is an ice giant (instead of a gas giant). It is mostly made of flowing icy materials above a solid core.Uranus has a thick atmosphere made of methane, hydrogen, and helium.Uranus is the only planet that spins on its side.One day on Uranus lasts a little over 17 hours (17 hours and 14 minutes, to be exact).One year on Uranus is the same as 84 years on Earth. That’s a long time to wait for a birthday cake.Uranus has 28 known moons.Uranus is the seventh planet from the Sun. That means Saturn and Neptune are Uranus’ neighboring planets.Uranus was discovered in 1781 by William Herschel in Great Britain.Uranus has only been visited by Voyager 2.This picture shows Uranus surrounded by its four major rings and by 10 of its moons. This image has colors added to show the different altitudes and thicknesses of clouds in the atmosphere. Green and blue areas show where the atmosphere is clear and sunlight can get through. The yellow and grey parts have thicker clouds. Orange and red colors mean ...
Mar 11, 2024 · Uranus Fact Sheet. Uranus/Earth Comparison. Bulk parameters. Orbital parameters. * Magnetic coordinates (as determined by the Voyager 2 Radio Science experiment) Uranus Observational Parameters.
Cold, dark and windswept - despite its calm appearance, the ice giant Uranus is a planet of extremes. Orbiting the Sun at an average distance of 2.9 billion kilometres - more than 19 times further out than the Earth - Uranus was the first planet to be discovered with the aid of a telescope, in 1781.
