URANUS

Uranus, (YUR uh nuhs or yu RAY nuhs), is the seventh planet from the sun. Only Neptune is farther away. It would take us 10 years to get there.

Uranus is the farthest planet that can be seen without a telescope Uranus is the farthest planet that can be seen without a telescope. (Just barely in ideal viewing conditions) Its average distance from the sun is about 1.7 billion miles. It takes sunlight about 2 hours 40 minutes to reach Uranus.

Uranus is a giant ball of gas and liquid Uranus is a giant ball of gas and liquid. Its diameter is over four times that of Earth.

The surface of Uranus consists of blue-green clouds made up of tiny frozen methane crystals.

At the very center of the planet may be a rocky core about the size of Earth.

Uranus was the first planet discovered since ancient times Uranus was the first planet discovered since ancient times. British astronomer William Herschel discovered it in 1781.

Johann E. Bode, a German astronomer, named it Uranus after a sky god in Greek mythology. It was almost named “George” after King George III of England.

Most of our information about Uranus comes from the flight of the United States spacecraft Voyager 2. In 1986, that craft flew within about 50,000 miles of the planet's cloud tops.

Uranus travels around the sun in an elliptical orbit, which takes just over 84 Earth years.

Rotation: We believe that the planet's interior takes 17 hours and 14 minutes to spin around once on its axis. However, much of the atmosphere rotates faster than that.

The fastest winds on Uranus blow at about 450 miles per hour.

Uranus is tilted so far on its side that its axis lies nearly level with its path around the sun. Uranus's axis tilts 98 degrees. Many astronomers think that a collision with an Earth-sized planet may have knocked Uranus on its side soon after it was formed.

Uranus has a mass that is 14 1/2 times larger than that of Earth. The atmosphere of Uranus is composed mostly of hydrogen (83%) and helium (15%)

The temperature of the atmosphere is about -355 degrees F, making it the coldest average planet in the solar system.

Uranus has 27 Moons. Astronomers discovered the 5 largest between 1787 and 1948. Photographs by Voyager 2 in 1985 and 1986 revealed 10 more Recently, more have been found with Earth based telescopes.

Miranda, the smallest of the five large satellites, has certain surface features that are unlike any other formation in the solar system.

Miranda is odd! 3 oddly shaped regions called “Ovoids” Each ovoid is 120 to 190 miles across. They may mean movement of ice                                                                                       Miranda is one of the few bodies in the solar system in which the equatorial circumference is shorter than the pole-to-pole circumference!

Uranus has 10 dark colored rings, each are no more than 33 feet thick.