Planet Uranus Facts
1. Uranus is named after the Greek god of the sky. Uranus was the husband of Gaia, the goddess of the Earth.
2. It was discovered in December 13, 1781 by William Herschel, a German-born British astronomer.
3. The orbital speed of Uranus is 6.6 km/sec (14,763 mi/hr).
4. A year on Uranus is equal to 84.01 Earth Years (orbit around the sun).
5. Uranus is the third largest planet in the Solar System.
6. The atmosphere of Uranus is composed of hydrogen, helium, and methane. The methane in the atmosphere absorbs red light, giving the planet a blue-green color.
7. Uranus is considered unusual because the planet is tipped on its side. The poles actually point towards the Sun. This is due to the fact that its magnetic field is tilted 60 degrees from the axis of rotation.
8. In 1986, Voyager 2 visited Uranus, until then, little was known about this planet.
9. Like Venus, Uranus spins from east to west, which is opposite from the spin of Earth.
10. A day on Uranus is equal to a little more than 17 hours on Earth.
11. Uranus maximum distance from the Sun is 3 billion km (1.88 billion miles).
12. Uranus minimum distance from the Earth is 2.6 billion km (1.6 billion miles).
13. The diameter of Uranus is 51,488 km (32,000 miles).
14. The 27 moons of Uranus are named after characters created by William Shakespeare and Alexander Pope.
15. William Herschel identified Titania and Oberon in 1787, these are the first two moons of Uranus that were discovered.
16. Uranus has 13 unique rings. They are named using Greek symbols and other numerical values: 1986U2R/ζ, 6, 5, 4, α, β, η, γ, δ, λ, ε, ν, and μ.
17. If you weigh 100 lbs on earth, your weight on Uranus would be 89 lbs. (multiply your actual weight by 0.89).
18. Miranda, Ariel, Umbriel, Titania, and Oberon are the main satellites of Uranus. Miranda & Ariel are characters in Shakespeare’s “The Tempest”; Ariel & Umbriel are also a characters in Alexander Pope’s “The Rape of the Lock”; Titania & Oberon are fairy royalty in Shakespeare’s “The Midsummer Nights Dream.”
19. Uranium, the chemical element, is named after the planet Uranus by Martin Heinrich Klaproth, a German chemist, in 1789.
20. Due to the fashion in which it spins, portions of Uranus can have nights that last over 40 years.
21. Uranus is the coldest of the planets even though Neptune is located further from the Sun.
22. The planet is the second least dense after Saturn.
“9. Like Venus, Uranus spins from east to west, which is opposite from the spin of Earth.” the website said this” 20. Unlike other planets, the poles of Uranus are on its sides. So when it orbits, it rolls, and does not spin.”
make up your mind please.
Whats so great about Uranus? Everyone says its sooooo cool. I dont see how it could be that awesome. Btw you would live untill your 88 before you actually went through all the seasons.
did you see the AFV video when a young girl was learning the name of the planets and she said myanus instead of uranus. LOl right??
wow urANUS is beast with all the helium and gases that turn it blue i love this planet
it was discovered on MARCH 13th not December 13. and it needs more facts. -_-
need more info use this info
Uranus is the seventh planet from the Sun and is the third largest in the solar system. It was discovered by William Herschel in 1781. It has an equatorial diameter of 51,800 kilometers (32,190 miles) and orbits the Sun once every 84.01 Earth years. It has a mean distance from the Sun of 2.87 billion kilometers (1.78 billion miles). It rotates about its axis once every 17 hours 14 minutes. Uranus has at least 22 moons. The two largest moons, Titania and Oberon, were discovered by William Herschel in 1787.
The atmosphere of Uranus is composed of 83% hydrogen, 15% helium, 2% methane and small amounts of acetylene and other hydrocarbons. Methane in the upper atmosphere absorbs red light, giving Uranus its blue-green color. The atmosphere is arranged into clouds running at constant latitudes, similar to the orientation of the more vivid latitudinal bands seen on Jupiter and Saturn. Winds at mid-latitudes on Uranus blow in the direction of the planet’s rotation. These winds blow at velocities of 40 to 160 meters per second (90 to 360 miles per hour). Radio science experiments found winds of about 100 meters per second blowing in the opposite direction at the equator.
Uranus is distinguished by the fact that it is tipped on its side. Its unusual position is thought to be the result of a collision with a planet-sized body early in the solar system’s history. Voyager 2 found that one of the most striking influences of this sideways position is its effect on the tail of the magnetic field, which is itself tilted 60 degrees from the planet’s axis of rotation. The magnetotail was shown to be twisted by the planet’s rotation into a long corkscrew shape behind the planet. The magnetic field source is unknown; the electrically conductive, super-pressurized ocean of water and ammonia once thought to lie between the core and the atmosphere now appears to be nonexistent. The magnetic fields of Earth and other planets are believed to arise from electrical currents produced in their molten cores.
Uranus’ Rings
In 1977, the first nine rings of Uranus were discovered. During the Voyager encounters, these rings were photographed and measured, as were two other new rings and ringlets. Uranus’ rings are distinctly different from those at Jupiter and Saturn. The outermost epsilon ring is composed mostly of ice boulders several feet across. A very tenuous distribution of fine dust also seems to be spread throughout the ring system.
There may be a large number of narrow rings, or possibly incomplete rings or ring arcs, as small as 50 meters (160 feet) in width. The individual ring particles were found to be of low reflectivity. At least one ring, the epsilon, was found to be gray in color. The moons Cordelia and Ophelia act as shepherd satellites for the epsilon ring.
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OH NO MY NERDY SIDE IS SHOWING!
Did you know that because of Uranus’s tilt, day and night ‘s lengths on the poles are 42 Earth years????????
where are more facts about uranus amd other things instead of why its called uranus like what the co2 level stuff like that…….
this is so cool i whis i was a scientes and found out how to make astronots come back to earth but it will be hard cause uanus’s atmosfer
uranus has had lots of stuff shot into it and they all got shuved very far up into uranus and they got cold and frozen solid and then the planet got hard as a rock
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need more info use this info
Uranus is the seventh planet from the Sun and is the third largest in the solar system. It was discovered by William Herschel in 1781. It has an equatorial diameter of 51,800 kilometers (32,190 miles) and orbits the Sun once every 84.01 Earth years. It has a mean distance from the Sun of 2.87 billion kilometers (1.78 billion miles). It rotates about its axis once every 17 hours 14 minutes. Uranus has at least 22 moons. The two largest moons, Titania and Oberon, were discovered by William Herschel in 1787.
The atmosphere of Uranus is composed of 83% hydrogen, 15% helium, 2% methane and small amounts of acetylene and other hydrocarbons. Methane in the upper atmosphere absorbs red light, giving Uranus its blue-green color. The atmosphere is arranged into clouds running at constant latitudes, similar to the orientation of the more vivid latitudinal bands seen on Jupiter and Saturn. Winds at mid-latitudes on Uranus blow in the direction of the planet’s rotation. These winds blow at velocities of 40 to 160 meters per second (90 to 360 miles per hour). Radio science experiments found winds of about 100 meters per second blowing in the opposite direction at the equator.
Uranus is distinguished by the fact that it is tipped on its side. Its unusual position is thought to be the result of a collision with a planet-sized body early in the solar system’s history. Voyager 2 found that one of the most striking influences of this sideways position is its effect on the tail of the magnetic field, which is itself tilted 60 degrees from the planet’s axis of rotation. The magnetotail was shown to be twisted by the planet’s rotation into a long corkscrew shape behind the planet. The magnetic field source is unknown; the electrically conductive, super-pressurized ocean of water and ammonia once thought to lie between the core and the atmosphere now appears to be nonexistent. The magnetic fields of Earth and other planets are believed to arise from electrical currents produced in their molten cores.
Uranus’ Rings
In 1977, the first nine rings of Uranus were discovered. During the Voyager encounters, these rings were photographed and measured, as were two other new rings and ringlets. Uranus’ rings are distinctly different from those at Jupiter and Saturn. The outermost epsilon ring is composed mostly of ice boulders several feet across. A very tenuous distribution of fine dust also seems to be spread throughout the ring system.
There may be a large number of narrow rings, or possibly incomplete rings or ring arcs, as small as 50 meters (160 feet) in width. The individual ring particles were found to be of low reflectivity. At least one ring, the epsilon, was found to be gray in color. The moons Cordelia and Ophelia act as shepherd satellites for the epsilon ring.
I understand why this website doesn’t have any info on the landscape (to reply to mea’s comment) because uranus is a gas planet so it doesn’t have any special features.
this website is great but it needs more information about the weather, landscape
and many others but i can’t name all of the questions because there is just soooooo
many!
Thanx for a website like this and ignore the others they are not cery polite
Look this is a cool website lots of fun facts but i need more scientific facts my teacher is strict i needed the weight in astronomical units and i needed its element configuration! but thanks anyways!
i lOVE URANUS , bUt thiS SitE NEEdS MORE fACtS (:
# ThANkS
yall some nerds
this is an alright site, the facts are legit, and to all you people who have projects on Uranus and are complaining about how this site sucks and it’s boring, stfu and go to another site, easy peasy. I’m kinda sick of seeing all these comments about ‘this site sucks’ and ‘boring’ and stuff like that, at least whoever owns this site made their own website, could you guys say the same? yeaaaah, didn’t think so.
if you don’t like the facts on this site, go look up Uranus in a library textbook or something. just stop complaining, k?
(Mini-Rage xD)
Thanks it really helped mi with my report all it needed was info boutcomposition and it’s appearance but this was way betterthan buying a cheap useless book
best planet jordan
LoL NOTTT!!
Damn thisnismgood facts
I finished my project using this site. The site is the definition of Awsome. BUT LIKE EVERYONE ELSE IS SAYING THE SITE COULD USE SOME MORE INFORMATION!!
😀 😀 😀 😀 😀
and by the way i found alot of info on uranus on this website thanks 😛
🙂
and i agree its a great site just needs more information for a report
im an expert on uranus and i know these arn’t correct. i studied uranus in collage and uranus is giant and gassy
1. Uranus is named after the Greek god of the sky. Uranus was the husband of Gaia, the goddess of the Earth.
2. The orbital speed of Uranus is 6.6 km/sec
3. A year on Uranus is equal to 84.01 Earth Years
4. Uranus is the third largest planet in the Solar System.
LOL I LOVE COMPUTERS
DICKS
Hey pretty good facts for my homework on the solar system but not enough.
Your sight would be a hit if you had more facts if any other veiwers agree please post this message ‘ i agree to the lady in the blue and green pyjamas’
thanks
I LOVE URANUS IT IS AN AMAZING PLANET
Hey pretty good facts for my homework on the solar system but not enough.
Your sight would be a hit if you had more facts if any other veiwers agree please post this message ‘ i agree to the lady in the blue and green pyjamas’
thanks
I LOVE URANUS IT IS AN AMAZING PLANET
you guys messed up its uranus not venus on #9
i need more facts
I love Uranus its so big and kool !!!! <3
awsomeee
i ned more facyszzzzzzzzzzzzz
good planet and very coolest planet likeJADA & MELiSSA
Uranus can’t support life. Uranus spins on its side. uranus looks like a fuzzy ball
I LOVE THIS PLANET!!!! 🙂 🙂
😉
THIS ROX THIS ROX THIS ROX
this planet sucks you can barely find information about it and did you no there was another planet discovered in 2010 called gliese it is similiar to earth
I know who discovered Uranus and it is William herschel. But I need more facts
they forgot one more fact uranus was also the first planet discovered by telescope.
this did not help me at all. btw on number 9…… who cares about Venus?
what is the distance of the sun?
I NEED MORE HELP
.
I NEED MORE FACTS ON URANUS.
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this is the coolest plant i ever seen on earth
i need more facts people!!
i need more facts