URANUS

Discovery

Uranus became the first planet discovered with a telescope.

The discoverer was William Herschel, March 13th 1781.

At the beginning, Herschel thought it was a comet, but several years later it was confirmed as

a planet.

NameHerschel wanted to name his discovery “Georgian Sidus” after the reign of King George III.

The name “Uranus” was proposed by astronomer Johann Bode. The name comes from the ancient Greek deity Ouranos.

Location

Uranus is the seventh planet in our solar system.

It's the third biggest, but it isn't visible to the naked eye.

Orbit and rotationUranus turns round the sun every 84 Earth years. The distance from the Sun is about 3,000 million km (about 20 AU). The interior rotational period of Uranus is 17 hours and 14 minutes.

However, like all giant planets, the upper atmosphere has very strong winds in the direction of rotation. In fact, in some latitudes, the features of the atmosphere move much faster, making a full rotation in a short time.

Orbit and rotationDuring 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.

Inclination of its axisThis planet is very curious because it revolve around the sun, sideway.

Uranus tipped over on its side with an axial tilt of 98 degrees.

We don't know why, but astronomers say that a meteorite hit its rings and it deflected the orbit of Uranus

Features● Mass: 86,810,300,000,000,000 billion kg. It's like 14.54 Earths.

● Diameter: 51,118 km.● Gravity: 8.69 m/s²● Average surface Temperature:- 224ºC

Composition

This planet is often called “ice giant” planet because it has:- Outer Atmosphere, it's the cloud layer.- Atmosphere with hydrogen, helium and methane- Mantle with water, ammonia and methane ice- Rocky and ice coreThe methane ice crystals give the planet its greenish-blue color.

Moons

Uranus has 27 known moons and others notable moons like Titania, Oberon, Miranda, Ariel. The

most interesting Uranus' moon is Miranda because it has strange-looking surface areas like

ice canyons, terraces, and others.

These moons are named after characters created by W. Shakespeare and A. Pope. All of them are

frozen worlds with dark surfaces. Some are mixtures of rock and ice.

Rings

Uranus has 13 known rings. They are divide in two sets of rings. The sets are very thin and dark

colored.The ring's particles are small.

There are nine inner rings and two outer rings. They probably formed when one or more of

Uranus’ moons were broken up in an impact. The first set of rings was discovered in 1977 and the

second set was discovered in 2003.

Moons and rings