URANUS

Facts Farthest planet able to be seen without a telescope 1,787,000,000 miles from the sun Takes light 2 hours, 40 minutes to reach Earth Revolution = 84 years or 30,685 days Rotation = 17 hr 14 minutes

Facts: 31,763 mile diameter (4x Earth) Only planet named after a Greek rather than a Roman god Name comes from Latinized version of the Greek god of the sky- Ouranos

Astronomer William Herschel discovered the planet in 1781 Uranus is an “Ice Giant” color is blue-green from frozen crystals of methane in clouds Clouds also have layers of liquid water and ammonia ice Has a rocky core surrounded by layers of ice

Facts: Axis tilt is 98o Hypothesized that a collision with an Earth-sized object knocked the tilt to its present position Second least dense planet (behind Saturn)- density = 1.27 gm/mL

Mass 14 ½ x greater than Earth 1/20 the mass of Jupiter 100 lbs on Earth = 90 lbs on Uranus Greater volume compared to its mass results in lower gravity than Earth

ATMOSPHERE 83 % H, 15 % He, and 2 % methane Temperature = -355o F in atmosphere 8,500o F in rocky core (compared to 42,000o F for Jupiter’s core) Poles receive more sunlight than equator Winds of about 450 mph

SATELLITES 27 known satellites All are named after characters from the works of William Shakespeare and Alexander Pope

SATELLITES Miranda (second from Uranus above) has “ovoids”, features which resemble a racetrack with crisscrossing ridges

RINGS More than 10 Range from 3 to 60 miles wide No more than 33 ft thick

EXPLORATION Voyager 2 in 1985 and 1986 Podcast on Uranus: http://www.astronomycast.com/2007/11/episode-62-uranus/ Short video on Uranus: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7f1nuwRq_E