Uranus
Introduction
Uranus is the seventh planet from the Sun and the third largest by diameter.
Uranus is larger in diameter but smaller in mass than Neptune. Uranus is
supposed to be an ancient Greek God and the father of Saturn. Uranus has 27
moons of which 21 are named and six are unnamed.
Composition
Unlike Jupiter and Saturn, Uranus is only composed of a but of hydrogen and
helium. But Uranus’ core is quite similar to the cores of Saturn and Jupiter.
Still, Uranus doesn’t have the rocky core that those two planets have and
Uranus’ material is quite distributed. Uranus' atmosphere is about 83% hydrogen,
15% helium and 2% methane.
As is common in all gas planets, Uranus has clouds that can be seen blowing
around the planet rapidly. But the bands of clouds are extremely faint and have
only be found because of enhanced pictures from Voyager 2.
Rings of Uranus
Every gas planets has rings and that means Uranus has rings. They are very faint
but just as in Saturn; they are composed of fairly large particles ranging up to
10 meters in diameter in addition to fine dust. So far, Earth has discovered 11
rings and the brightest one is called the Epsilon ring. The rings were
discovered right after Saturn’s. It’s just that Saturn’s rigs are easily
identified and Uranus’ and Jupiter’s are not.
Uranus can be seen only on very clear nights with telescopes and even
binoculars.
Moons
Titania
Like most of the the other Outer Planet’s moons, Titania is made out of ice and
rock. Its surface is covered with numerous amounts of valleys. Scientists think
that these valleys are actually cracks in the surface. These cracks are thought
to have been created by the expanding of the interior when it froze. This tells
us that the moon must have once been liquid. 1.In the Midsummer’s night dream
written by Shakespeare, Titania was the Queen of Fairies, and was the wife of
the King of Fairies, Oberon. 2.Titania is the largest moon of Uranus.
Factfile
Distance from Uranus: 436,270 km
Diameter: 1578 km
Mass: 3.4921 kg
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Ariel
Ariel is a mischievous airy spirit in Shakespeare's The Tempest. Ariel is very
much like Titania. They share many of the same characteristics. For example:
Ariel also has the valleys that are present on the surface of Titania, except
the ones on Ariel are larger. Just like Titania, Ariel also might have been
liquid at one point of time. When it froze it would have expanded, and created
large cracks which became valleys. Ariel along with the three other largest
moons of Uranus can actually be seen using a normal (amateur) telescope, but the
night has to be extremely clear.
Factfile
Distance from Uranus: 190,930 km
Diameter: 1158 km 21
Mass: 1.27 kg
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Oberon
Oberon is one of the most cratered moons of Uranus. The moon also has fault
lines, which shows that there must have been some geologic activity before. Now,
though, there isn’t any more activity going on.
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Did You Know?
1. The temperature at Uranus' equator is still hotter than the poles. This
phenomenon behind this is still yet unknown.
2. Uranus is the only known planet that spins on its side; every other planet
spins counter clockwise or clockwise. A collision soon after its birth may have
knocked the planet sideways.
3. To find your weight on Uranus, simply multiply your weight by 0.86.
4. Uranus was the first planet to be discovered since all the others before it
have been observed by humans since they could look at the sky.
5. Unlike Saturn and Jupiter, Uranus has no evidence of internal heating.
6. When Voyager visited Uranus, its south pole pointed almost directly at the
sun. Because of this, Uranus’ polar regions received a lot of energy, more than
Uranus’ equatorial regions. Yet, Uranus is hotter at its equatorial regions than
at its polar regions!
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