Overview
Uranus is the oddball of the planets in the Solar System. Not only is it the only planet to be named after a Greek god, the primordial god of the sky, but it has a good reason to be nicknamed “The Sideways Planet”.
Classification
Uranus is an ice giant. Ice giant planets are different than gas giant planets when it comes to both size and temperature. Ice giant planets are smaller than gas giants. Temperature wise, they are very cold due to how far they are from the Sun. They have an icy mantle, which gas giants do not.
Size
Uranus is 4 times wider than Earth, with a radius of 15,759.2 miles. It’s smaller than Saturn and Jupiter, but bigger than its neighbor Neptune.
Rotation
One day on Uranus is 17 Earth hours, whereas one year on Uranus is 84 Earth years.
Position
Uranus is tilted 97.77 degrees, thus its equator is where the north and south poles would be on every other planet. For a fourth of Uranus’ year one of the poles is plunged into darkness. This is because of tilt and the fact that Uranus spins at its poles each day. This is why it is called “The Sideways Planet”.
Uranus rotates from east to west, just like Venus and Pluto.
Light takes 2 hours and 40 minutes to travel from the Sun to Uranus. Due to being the 7th planet, Uranus is 1.8 billion miles away from the Sun.
Structure
Uranus has a core. The core is small and rocky and reaches temperatures up to 9,000 degrees F.
A hot dense ice water, methane and ammonia mantel makes up 80% of Uranus’ structure.
Uranus has no true surface like all the other outer planets. Instead there are fluids, making it more of an ocean-like surface.
Uranus is slightly larger than Neptune, but smaller in mass. This makes it the 4th most massive planet. Uranus is one of the coldest planets, not only because it is far from the Sun, but because it has little to no heat radiating from the core. This is because the core isn’t spinning or as active. Neptune is warmer than Uranus even though it is farther from the Sun.
Uranus has .9 times Earth’s gravity. Which means everything would be slightly lighter on Uranus.
Atmosphere
The atmosphere on Uranus is composed of hydrogen and helium with minimal amounts of methane, and tiny amounts of water and ammonia. The blue-green color is caused by sunlight refraction on the methane gas in the atmosphere.
The winds that blow around the equator of the planet blow the opposite way that Uranus spins, whereas the winds near the poles blow with the planetary rotation. Wind speeds reach up to 560 miles an hour.
The temperature in the atmosphere can drop down to -371.56 degrees F which is even colder than spots on Neptune.
Moons and Rings
Uranus has 27 discovered moons. The moons orbiting close to Uranus might be made of water and rock. The outer moons haven’t be studied as much. All of the moons are named after characters created by William Shakespeare and Alexander Pope. Usually moons are named after Greek characters that are connected to the Greek version of the planet’s name, but Uranus is not the usual Roman name, it is in fact Greek in origin. Yet another oddity about this oddball planet.
There are 13 known rings surrounding Uranus. They can be broken into 2 sets of rings, with 9 inner rings and 2 outer rings. The inner rings are thin and dark grey in color. One of the outer rings is red, while the other is blue.
Fun Facts
On Uranus, it rains diamonds. Carbon and hydrogen in the atmosphere are compressed and the resulting diamonds fall in towards the core.
Of the planets, it is only more dense that Saturn and might also be able to float in a cosmic bathtub, or at least not sink as far.