U RANUS By Jackson, Iiro, and Christian

W HAT I S U RANUS ? Uranus is the seventh planet from the sun. It is a gas giant and is several times larger than our planet Earth. It is a gas giant. A gas giant is a very large collection of dust, gas, and small particles of interstellar matter that accretes into a sphere in a period of anywhere from millions to billions of years. It is mainly composed of the 2 most basic elements in the universe, hydrogen and helium. Deeper down, however, it has some more complicated elements and compounds.

W HAT I S U RANUS ? CONTINUED It is a mystifying pale sky-blue color across the entire outer atmosphere. Uranus is this color because of the large amount of methane it has. Were you to stand on the moons of Uranus you would see the blue planet in its entirety only a few hundred-thousand miles away. Uranus is placed between Saturn and Neptune in the order of the planets.

C ONDITIONS OF U RANUS Uranus’ atmosphere is extremely cold, only around 70K, which translates to -330 degrees Fahrenheit. This fact, coupled with it being a gas giant, means only the moons can be inhabited. Uranus has 5 major moons, all large enough to be classified as dwarf planets were they not orbiting Uranus. Each moon is a completely different world. Since the moons are so far from the sun they are all extremely cold.

U RANUS F ACTS Discovered by William Herschel in 1781 while under the reign of King George the Third, it was originally to be named “George’s Star”. Uranus is the father of all gods and titans in Greek Mythology. Uranus, like all of the other gas giants, has a faint ring system orbiting around it. The rings are kept in place by so called “shepherd moons” which keep the system stable.

U RANUS ’ S M OONS Although Uranus itself can not be landed on, the moons of Uranus can be. Through the use of airtight, heated shelters these moons could be lived on safely. The 5 main moons are Miranda, Ariel, Umbriel, Titania, and lastly Oberon. All of Uranus’ moons are named after characters in either William Shakespeare’s plays or Alexander Pope’s poems.

I NTERESTING I NFORMATION Uranus is the only planet is the solar system to be completely tilted onto its side. For comparison, Uranus is tilted nearly 90 degrees, while Earth is only tilted 23 degrees. Uranus has the coldest atmosphere in the entire solar system. No other planet even comes close to how freezing cold Uranus is. Uranus, along with Venus, is one of only 2 planets to have its rotation reversed. Instead of spinning west to east it spins east to west.