180 Amazing Facts About Uranus

180 Amazing Facts About Uranus

• Only one spacecraft has flown by Uranus.
• Uranus was officially discovered by Sir William Herschel in 1781.
• Uranus hits the coldest temperatures of any planet.
• Uranus turns on its axis once every 17 hours, 14 minutes.
• Uranus is often referred to as an “ice giant” planet.
• The tilt of Uranus may have been caused by a collision.
• One day on Uranus spans 17 hours and 54 minutes. 
• Uranus is named after a Greek god, not Roman, like other planets.
• Earth’s axis is at a tilt of 23.5 degrees while Uranus’ axis is at a tilt of 98 degrees. 
• Uranus is also dubbed as the most boring planet in the solar system because of its quiet nature and lack of interesting data that can be gathered with telescopes.
• Uranus is associated with the day “Wednesday.”
• It is also the ruling sign of Zodiac “Aquarius.” 
• Uranus and Neptune are classified as “ice giants” because of their different composition than that of Jupiter and Saturn, which mostly contain gas.
• Uranus orbits the Sun every 84 Earth years.
• While Uranus orbits around the Sun in 84 Earth years, the planet experiences 42 years of summer (sunlight) time and 4 years of winter (darkness) time.
• The planet rotates at an average distance of approximately 2.9 billion km from the Sun. And the Earth is at a distance of 149,600,000 kilometers from the Sun. Neptune has the longest orbit of any known planet – 4.5 billion km from the Sun.
• The intensity of sunlight on Uranus is 1/400 the intensity of sunlight on Earth.
• Uranus is 14.5 times the mass of the Earth.
• Titania is the largest moon of Uranus. It is about 1/3rd the size of Earth’s moon.
• The brightest of the Uranus’ moon is Ariel while the darkest is Umbriel.
• Uranus has a magnitude of 5.3 which is just within the human eye’s brightest scale.
• It is believed that Uranus’s rings are rather young since they did not form together with the planet.
• Uranus is the smallest out of the Jovian planets.
• The planet also contains cloud patters that changes between hemispheres, some of it lasts only a few hours but others can last decades.
• The presence of methane in the planet’s atmosphere gives it that bluish-green color. Methane absorbs the red spectrum visible light.
• The planet also has traces of other hydrocarbons such as diacetelyn, ethane, methlacetylene and acetylene all of which are believed to be the result of methane interacting with solar ultraviolent radiation.
• Although nearly 63 times larger than our Earth, due to its low density, its gravity is only about ninety (90) percent that of Earth’s.
• The pressure on the surface is around 1.3 times that of the earth and the gravity is about 0.9 times that of Earth. In other words, a 10 feet dunk on Earth would equate to an 11 feet dunk on Uranus.
• Temperatures are freezing -153 degrees C to -218 degrees C in the deeper troposphere where the clouds are. Compare with Earth temperatures, where the coldest it’s got in recent years was a record -93.2 degrees C in Antarctica in 2013.
• Uranus has the coldest atmosphere in the solar system and it’s not hard to see why. It’s over 19 times further away from the sun than the Earth is! the temperature on the planet can get as low as -224 degrees Celsius.
• Uranus’s rings were finally named Mu, Nu, Epsilon, Lambda (1986 U1R), Delta, Gamma, Eta, Beta, Alpha, 4, 5, 6 and Zeta (1986U2R).
• The inner and outer rings of the planet possibly formed when one of Uranus’s moons broke into piece upon impact with another object.
• The brightest ring of Uranus is called the Epsilon ring.
• The magnetic field of the planet is not centered at the center but it is tiled almost sixty degrees relative to the axis of rotation. This is generated by the motion at shallow depths within Uranus.
• Uranus has at-least twenty-seven (27) moons.
• Uranus is the second (2nd) least dense planet in our Solar system with a mean density of 0.687 g/cm3 which is less dense than water.
• There are two ways one can pronounce Uranus: ū·rā′·nəs (“your anus”) and ūr′·ə·nəs (“urine iss”).
• The planet is the farthest one from the Earth that can be seen by the naked eye.
• Compared to the other moons are named using classical mythology, the names of the moons on Uranus take the names of Shakespeare’s writings.
• NASA’s Voyager 2 was the only spacecraft able to visit Uranus. It swept past the planet at a distance of 81,500 km in the year 1986.
• The mass of Uranus is 8.68×10^25 kg which is about fifteen (15) earths.
• Uranus has has two (2) outer rings and eleven (11) inner rings. It’s thirteen (13) rings are quite faint and are not clearly seen.
• Uranus is mostly composed of rock and ice and has an effective temperature of -216 degree Celsius.
• The orbit distance of Uranus is about 2,870,658,186 km or 19.19 AU.
• Uranus has an orbit period of 30,687 days or 84 years.
• The atmosphere contains 83% hydrogen, 15% helium and 2% methane.
• Uranus is a giant planet. Wind speeds on giant planets can be as much as 15 times stronger than winds on Earth. Winds on Uranus can travel as fast as 560 miles per hour. That’s not exactly supersonic speed (the speed of sound in air is 750 miles per hour) so a stationary jet in the path of the crashing wind won’t experience a sonic boom like it would on Neptune. But the icy winds of Uranus can uproot trees, dislodge houses and do a lot more damage in seconds than we’ve seen on Earth.
• It’s fun to know that the winds of Uranus only blow in very narrow layers that are a very small proportion of the planet’s atmosphere. What this means is, there’s probably not a lot of weather activity going on deeper into the giant planet of Uranus.
• Uranus hits the coldest temperatures of any planet. With minimum atmospheric temperature of -224°C (-371ºF) Uranus is nearly coldest planet in the solar system. While Neptune doesn’t get as cold as Uranus it is on average colder. The upper atmosphere of Uranus is covered by a methane haze which hides the storms that take place in the cloud decks.
• Uranus has the second most dramatic set of rings in the Solar System. Unlike Saturn’s particles which are made of bright ice, the rings of Uranus are very dark. They’re also narrow, only measuring a few km wide. Astronomers think that the rings of Uranus are very young, and probably formed relatively recently, and not with the planet.
• Uranus has a total of 27 moons, most of whom are named after characters in Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream. The five major moons are called Titania, Oberon, Miranda, Ariel and Umbriel. Umbriel is not from Shakespeare but is the “melancholy sprite” in a poem by Alexander Pope.
• Uranus was originally called “George’s Star”
• Only one spacecraft has flown by Uranus. In 1986, the Voyager 2 spacecraft swept past the planet at a distance of 81,500 km. It returned the first close-up images of the planet, its moons, and rings.
• The wind speeds on Uranus can reach 900 km/h (560 mph).
• The chemical element Uranium, discovered in 1789, was named after the newly discovered planet Uranus.
• Uranus is too dim for ancient civilizations to have seen it. It is the seventh planet from the Sun (Order of the planets from the Sun: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto (the dwarf planet)).
• It is too dim to have been seen by the ancients. At first Herschel thought it was a comet, but several years later it was confirmed as a planet. Herscal tried to have his discovery named “Georgian Sidus” after King George III. The name Uranus was suggested by astronomer Johann Bode. The name comes from the ancient Greek deity Ouranos.
• The planet rotates in a retrograde direction, opposite to the way Earth and most other planets turn.
• Uranus makes one trip around the Sun every 84 Earth years.
• During some parts of its orbit one or the other of its poles point directly at the Sun and get about 42 years of direct sunlight. The rest of the time they are in darkness.
• Like the other gas giants, it has a hydrogen upper layer, which has helium mixed in. Below that is an icy “mantle, which surrounds a rock and ice core. The upper atmosphere is made of water, ammonia and the methane ice crystals that give the planet its pale blue colour.
• With minimum atmospheric temperature of -224°C Uranus is nearly coldest planet in the solar system. While Neptune doesn’t get as cold as Uranus it is on average colder. The upper atmosphere of Uranus is covered by a methane haze which hides the storms that take place in the cloud decks.
• Uranus has two sets of very thin dark coloured rings.
• The ring particles are small, ranging from a dust-sized particles to small boulders. There are eleven inner rings and two outer rings. They probably formed when one or more of Uranus’s moons were broken up in an impact. The first rings were discovered in 1977 with the two outer rings being discovered in Hubble Space Telescope images between 2003 and 2005.
• Uranus’ moons are named after characters created by William Shakespeare and Alexander Pope.
• These include Oberon, Titania and Miranda.  All are frozen worlds with dark surfaces. Some are ice and rock mixtures.  The most interesting Uranian moon is Miranda; it has ice canyons, terraces, and other strange-looking surface areas.
• In 1986, the Voyager 2 spacecraft swept past the planet at a distance of 81,500 km. It returned the first close-up images of the planet, its moons, and rings.
• Uranus, named after the the father of the Roman god Saturn, is the seventh planet in the Solar System and third of the gas giants. It is the third largest planet by diameter, yet fourth most massive.
• It’s not visible to the naked eye, and became the first planet discovered with the use of a telescope.
• Uranus was first seen by William Herschel in 1781 during a survey of the sky using a telescope. In 1782 George III appointed Herschel as Astronomer Royal.
• Herschel also discovered 2 of Uranus’ moons with a larger telescope.
• The mass of Uranus is about 14.5 times the mass of Earth and 63 Earths can fit inside Uranus.
• Uranus rotates on its axis once every 17 hours and 14 minutes. Like Venus, it turns in a retrograde direction which is opposite to the direction Earth and the other six planets turn.
• It takes Uranus 84 Earth years to orbit the Sun. Its axis is at 98 degrees, which means it almost lies sideways as it orbits the Sun. This means that the north and south poles of Uranus lie near where the equator is on Earth. During parts of its orbit one or other of the poles directly face the Sun which means the planet gets around 42 years of direct sunlight followed by 42 years of darkness.
• A collision may have caused the unusual tilt of Uranus. The theory is that an Earth-sized planet may have collided with Uranus which forced its axis to drastically shift.
• Uranus is often referred to as an “ice giant” planet. Like the other gas giants, it has a hydrogen upper layer, which has helium mixed in. Below that is an icy “mantle, which surrounds a rock and ice core. The upper atmosphere is made of water, ammonia and the methane ice crystals that give the planet its pale blue color.
• This is why there has been no mention of Uranus sightings before William Herschel saw it through his telescope in 1781. He had been surveying stars, including those that were ten times dimmer than visible stars.
• When he looked through the telescope and saw a strange, slow-spinning object, Herschel wasn’t sure what he was looking at was a planet. The British astronomer thought it was a comet or a star. It took some time for others to confirm that Uranus was a planet because it follows a planetary orbit. 
• The funny thing is this makes Uranus the first planet to have been discovered in modern times! Ancient people had already scanned the skies and discovered six of the nine planets that we recognize today (the other modern discoveries were Neptune and Pluto (now classified as a dwarf planet), too dim to the naked eye).
• If you love studying planets, you’ll know that most planets are named after Roman gods. Mars is the Roman god of war, for instance. Uranus, however, is named after the Greek god of the sky, Ouranos or Uranus. He was the father of Saturn.
• Uranus is the only planet that is named after a Greek god. This curious fact has something to do with how Latin (which the Romans spoke) and Greek words were so closely interconnected in the minds of people during the Renaissance, when Uranus was discovered. It seems that Johann Bode, the German astronomer that settled on the name Uranus, may not have liked how the Latin name for the father of Saturn, Caelus, sounded. He may have preferred ‘Uranus’, and so that’s what this planet beyond Saturn came to be called.
• A lot of other names had been rejected in the naming of Uranus. These included Hypercronius (which means ‘above Saturn’) and even the dreadful Georgium Sidus (meaning ‘The Georgian Planet’) with which Herschel wanted to flatter the then-King of England George III. Thankfully Herschel’s sycophantic attempts to name Uranus was not popular, or we wouldn’t have ‘your-anus’ in our midst anymore!
• No planet other than Uranus has such a screwball way of spinning around the sun! The Earth, as we know, spins at an angle of 23 degrees. Jupiter is barely tilted at an angle of 3 degrees.
• There’s a high chance that the reason for Uranus’s lopsided spinning is the many collisions it has suffered. If you look at near-infrared views of the planet, you’ll be able to see faint rings around the sphere. This will show you how deep the planet’s tilt angle really is. Something really big – many times bigger than the earth – may have crashed into Uranus a long time ago and thrown the planet on its side.
• The planet can get as hot as it gets cold. Where the sun’s radiation hits the planet’s outer atmosphere layers, temperatures can get as hot as 577 degrees C. The core may get as hot as 4,727 degrees (which is nothing to Jupiter’s 24,000 degrees C core). But the sun is far away from Uranus, so the furnace in the core of Uranus probably plays a much larger role in keeping the planet warm.
• This kind of extreme temperature difference creates seasons as long as 20 years. This is easier to understand if you think about how large Uranus is.
• Uranus has 27 moons, Jupiter has 67 while the Earth has just one. Uranus has third most moons in the solar system. The last of these 27 moons was discovered in 2003.
• There’s a lot more to learn about fascinating Uranus and its five major rocky moons: Miranda, Titania, Ariel, Umbriel, and Oberon.
• The name of other moons of Uranus are: Trinculo, Puck, Cordelia, Setebos, Desdemona, Ophelia, Portia, Sycorax, Bianca, Cressida, Cupid, Belinda, Caliban, Rosalind, Stephano, Juliet, Mab, Perdita, Prospero, Ferdinand, Francisco and Margaret.
• Wondering who suggested the names of these moons? Interestingly, the names of all the 27 moons of Uranus are taken up from the work of Shakespeare and Alexander Pope.
• There has been only one spacecraft to have visited the planet – the Voyager 2 on January 24, 1986. It’s to be hoped there will be a lot more!
• 1 astronomical unit, or 1 au, is the average distance from the Sun to the Earth. And Uranus is at a distance of 19.19 AU from the Sun (1 AU in KM = 149,598,000 kilometers.)
• Uranus is the seventh planet from the Sun. Saturn is sixth and Neptune is eighth.
• In 1789, Martin Heinrich Klaproth, the discoverer of Uranium, named the element after Uranus. 
• What amazes is the fact that Uranus does not generate any heat which is more than what it receives from the Sun. Neptune, however, which is almost similar in size of Uranus, emits 2.6 times the heat it receives from the Sun. Now, there are different theories that explain the inability of Uranus to emit the heat from its core.
• Sunlight takes almost 2 hours and 40 minutes to reach Uranus, which is 20 times the time it takes to reach the Earth.
• Uranus has 13 rings, and all of them are very faint. The size of the bodies in the rings vary between 0.2 and 20 m in diameter. Saturn, on the other hand, has 12 rings that are the most extensive ring system of any planet of the solar system.
• Uranus rotates on its side, it spins horizontally. 
• Uranus revolves in its orbit at a speed of 6.6 km/sec while Mercury is the fastest planet in this regard at 47.87 km/sec.
• There is a difference in the density of Uranus and that of the Earth. So if you were weighed on Uranus, you would weigh only 0.89% of your actual weight on Earth. 
• Modern astrologers consider Uranus as the primary native ruler of the eleventh house. The planet is thought to be associated with mental disorders, sympathetic nervous system, breakdowns and hysteria, spasms, and cramps.
• Uranus is the seventh (7th) planet from the Sun and is the third-largest in terms of size after Jupiter and Saturn. It is also the first planet discovered with a telescope.
• Uranus is tipped over on its side and has an axial tilt of ninety-eight (98) degrees. It is therefore often described as “rolling around the Sun on its side“.
• The odd tilt of Uranus is due to the fact that is constantly being hit by moon-sized asteroids resulting in a 97.777 degree tilt which is almost perpendicular to our Earth.
• Because of the odd way it spins, there are places where the night can last for more than forty (40) years.
• Uranus has an equatorial diameter of 51,118 km and polar diameter of 49,946 km. Due to its extensive diameter, sixty-three (63) Earths can fit inside it.
• Uranus has a minimum temperature of less than -224 degree Celsius which makes it coldest planet in the solar system.
• Uranus is named after an ancient Greek God of the sky.
• Like its fellow gas giants, the planet has a hydrogen upper layer which is basically helium and hydrogen. The planet’s mantle is made of ice surrounded by rock and an ice core.
• Most of its atmosphere is made of ammonia, methane ice and water that give it that blue pale color.
• The planet was discovered by a British astronomer, Sir William Herschel who, while searching the sky using his telescope on March 13, 1781, noticed the planet and named it Georgium Sidus or the Georgian Planet.
• Uranus is the first planet discovered in the modern times. The planet turns on its axis regularly; once very seventeen (17) hours and fourteen (14) minutes.
• The blue color of Uranus is caused by the absorption of red light due to methane in the atmosphere.
• It was the Kuiper team who first named the planet’s rings: Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta and then Epsilon. The Perth Team named the other rings from 1 to 6. The first rings were discovered by the Hubble Space Telescope from 2003 to 2005.
• Uranus’s moons form three main classes: the eleven (11) small dark inner ones which were discovered by Voyager 2, the five (5) large ones and the recently discovered further ones.
• Uranus is the fourth (4th) most massive planet in the solar system and is also referred to as an ice giant.
• Until 1781, people thought Uranus was a star. The planet was first recorded by John Flamsteed in 1690, who actually thought it was a star that belonged to the Taurus constellation.
• Most of its moons have circular orbits in the plane of the planet’s equator; the outer four (4) are much more elliptical.
• Titania is Uranus’s largest moon, followed by Oberon, Umbriel, Ariel and Miranda. Ariel is Uranus’s brightest moon while Umbriel is it’s darkest. Each of the planet’s moons have low geometric albedos and low bonds.
• Miranda, one of the planet’s moons, contains terraces, ice canyons and other eerie-looking surface features. Miranda, one of its moons, is the smallest one of them all. It is also closest to the planet.
• Uranus’s moon, Ariel, was discovered in 1851 by William Lassell.
• Titania is the planet’s largest satellite and eighth (8th) largest one in the solar system. It has a diameter of 1,577.8 km and a mass of 3.42 x 10^21 kg which is 4.7% of the mass of Earth’s moon.
• The planet rotates in a retrograde-type direction which is opposite to how Earth rotates.
• Uranus has very strong zonal winds in its atmosphere which can reach up to 900 kph or 560 mph. This can generate anticyclonic storms comparable to Jupiter’s Great Red Spot.
• Since the time the planet Uranus has been discovered, many scientists observed that at certain points during its orbit Uranus is being pulled out farther into space.
• One of the key people who discovered the planet’s rings come from the Kuiper Airborne and Perth Observatory in Australia.
• Experts believe that this tilt was the result, literally, of several punches to the planet and not just one big collision. This may have happened at the beginning of the solar system when the moons of Uranus were still balls of gas. Such a discovery has somewhat changed the way we think about the formation of planets in our solar system.
• The old theory was that Uranus, Neptune, and the Saturn and Jupiter cores were created by pulling in small floating objects from space around it. But there is evidence to suggest that Uranus suffered a collision at least twice. This means that maybe planets can be created by impact too. 
• Uranus is icy and burning hot, with extreme seasons.
• If you look in the direction of Uranus through a telescope, you will see a bluish-greenish disk. The planet’s color comes from the 2 percent methane gas in its atmosphere, along with mostly hydrogen (83 percent) and some Helium (15 percent). Methane makes it aquamarine or cyan in color.
• In fact, Uranus has a thick, smoggy atmosphere that becomes denser the deeper you go. For example, if you were to fall off your spacecraft over Uranus, you’d probably find yourself half-falling and half-swimming through the planet’s atmosphere. In the heart of the icy smog of the planet is rock that is about the size of the earth.

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