Facts About Planet Uranus – The Planet Lying On Its Side
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Uranus |
Facts about Uranus
Watch A Video On Uranus Facts
Planet Profile
Name | Uranus |
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Knowm Satellite | 27 |
Distance from Sun (avg) | 2.871 billion km |
Equatorial Radius | 25,559 km |
Polar Radius | 24,973 km |
Volume | 6.83 × 1013 km3 |
Mass | 8.681 × 1025 kg |
Surface area | 8.083 billion km2 |
Gravity | 8.87 m/s2 |
Surface Temperature ( at 1 bar) |
-197 ℃ or -322 °F |
Length of day | 0 day 17 hrs 14 min (earth time) |
Length of year | 84 Earth years |
Astronomical symbol | ⛢ |
Quick Facts About Uranus
- Uranus is the first planet to be discovered through a telescope.
- At a mean density of 1.27 g/cm3, Uranus is the second least dense planet in the solar system, after Saturn.
- NASA's Voyager 2 sent in 1986 is the only spacecraft that have been visited Uranus.
- Wind speed on Uranus can reach up to 900 kilometres or 560 miles per hour.
- Distance between Saturn and Uranus is greater than the distance between Saturn and the Sun.
- It is so far that the sunlight takes approximately 2 hours and 40 minutes to reach Uranus.
- The chemical element "Uranium", a heavy metal, is also named after Uranus.
- The blue-green appearance of Uranus is due to the presence of Methane in the uraniun atmosphere.
- Uranus is the smallest of gas giants but about 14.5 massive and 4 times wider than Earth.
- Astronomers calls Uranus as ice giants rather than gas giants because of most of the planet's mass is made up of icy materials (water, methane and ammonia).
Detailed facts about Uranus
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Uranus was not seen by any ancient civilizations
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William Herschel's telescope through which Uranus was first discovered |
In fact during second century BCE, Hipparchos - a Greek mathematician and astronomer recorded Uranus as a star in his star catalogue. During the 17th and 18th centuries, multiple sighting of Uranus was recorded by astronomers but as a star. It is believed that the planet itself is far too dim that any ancient civilizations had not been able to see it without the assistance of Technology.
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Uranus was first and officially discovered in 1781
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William Herschel |
Herschel had been searching for a binary star system when he stumbled across a disc-shaped object. Though, he initially labelled it as a comet or stellar disc. Russian academician Anders Lexel stepped in and took a gander at Herschel's finding. After computing the orbit, Lexel suggested that it may be a planetary body. One that sits beyond Saturn at 1.8 billion miles or 2.9 billion kilometres from the Sun.
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Uranus was named after Greek god of heavens or sky
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Uranus stands above Gaia and her for children
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Johann suggested that if Jupiter was the father of Gods and Saturn was the father of Jupiter, then the new planet must be named after father of Saturn, Caelus. But rather taking the name from Roman religion, Bode opted for taking Caelus's Greek equivalent "Ouranos"- Greek God of heavens or sky. Which was Latinized as Uranus and became the common name by the 1850s.
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There are 27 moons revolving around Uranus
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Some major moons of Uranus |
The additional 10 moons were found in 1986 when the Voyager 2 passed by Uranus system. Six more moons were discovered in the 1990s and an additional six were found in the 2000s with the last one being confirmed in 2003. Even more interesting, each moon was named after a character from William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream or from Alexander Pope's The Rape of the Lock.
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Uranus' largest moon Titania is the eighth largest moon in the solar system
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Titania - Largest moon of Uranus |
Titania is made up of a nearly 50-50 ratio of ice to rock and is thought to have a rocky core and an icy mantle. Impact craters as large as 203 miles or 327 kilometres and canyons speckle the moon's surface. The canyons thought to be the result of the moon's inner expansion.
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Uranus has a very thin and dark coloured ring system
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Rings of Uranus, image taken by Hubble Space Telescope |
With nine rings being confirmed by 1978. A total of 13 rings have been found between images taken by the Voyager 2 in 1986 and photos from the Hubble Space Telescope between 2003 and 2005. It is thought that the system of rings came about from a collision of moons that may have once encircled the planet.
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Uranus completes its one orbit once in 84 years
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Orbit of Uranus and other outer planets with their position |
The lengthy orbital period also means there are approximately 21 years between each seasonal change. At perihelion or the closest point to the Sun, Uranus is roughly 2.5 billion km or 1.7 billion miles away from the Sun which is about 18 times farther than Earth. While at aphelion or the farthest point from the Sun Uranus will be at 3 billion km or 1.89 billion miles from the Sun which is about 20 times farther.
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Uranus is rotating nearly sideways in its orbit
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Axial tilt of Uranus and other planets |
Uranus' unusual sideways rotation may be the result of a huge collision with a body that was several times larger than Earth. This must have happened in the solar system's early days because moons and rings orbit Uranus vertically. Some computer simulation suggested that it might have taken more than one collision to give uranus this unique tilt.
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Uranus has unusual weather
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Seasonal change on Uranus |
Additional to these seasonal storms, Uranus can also experience extreme winds, reaching speeds of 900 kilometres or 560 miles per hour. The temperatures dip as low as minus 350 degrees Fahrenheit or minus 220 degrees Celsius.
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Uranus once dubbed as the most boring planet in the solar system
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Banded structures and hazes aligned parallel to Uranus' equator |
Astronomer Heidi Hammel is known for her extensive research of Uranus and Neptune. She wrote in the 2006 text "Solar System Update" that Uranus was even once dubbed the most boring planet or its assumedly quiet nature. But that all changed when the Hubble telescope produced more telling photos after a seasonal change. That gave an indication of more severe weather patterns.
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Uranus is full of diamonds and actually, it rains diamonds
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Internal structure of Uranus © Wikimedia |
Scientists recreated the condition of Uranus and Neptune on earth to successfully produce diamond rain. They used an intense laser to send a pair of overlapping shockwave thorough a plastic made from hydrogen and carbon. The shockwave creates a brief moment of pressure and heat that is comparable to the interior of ice giants. The diamond that they produce is not much larger than a nanometer but they believe that diamonds on Uranus maybe millions of carats big.
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