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Uranus is smaller than Jupiter and Saturn but much larger than the Earth. It is also
far more distant from the Sun than the Earth, about 19 times as distant. It is like a blue featureless planet which
is hard to observe from Earth. The methane present within the atmosphere scatters light from the sun, making it
seem blue when it is really not.
The atmosphere of Uranus is composed of Hydrogen and Methane. There are clouds present giving the atmosphere this
coloring effect as well. The clouds consist of crystals of frozen methane. Due to the formation of such crystals
and its distance from the sun, Uranus is a very cold planet.
Relying on Uranus's mass and density, scientists have made observations on what the interior of this planet may
be like. It has a greater density than Jupiter or Saturn, making it seem that it has less hydrogen. Lighter
materials must be present on Uranus then. Water mixed along with ammonia and methane may be one possible material.
It spins very fast, once every 17 hours, therefore the interior much not exert a great pressure. The inner core
is composed of Iron and rock while radiating out a mantle like surface is present. This region may contain water
. Finally molecular hydrogen and gas are the outer most region of the interior laying in between the atmosphere.
Uranus is also composed of rings, rings which are however, dark. This implies that the rings must be made of some
carbon particles or other organic material. They are very narrow and even more narrower than the rings on Saturn.
They are not coated with ice as Saturn's rings are. Along this region are the moons of Uranus. It has 10 small
moons and 5 larger ones. They are made of ice and rock and are mostly cratered with the exception of Miranda, the
smallest of the large moon. Uranus has one other distance property, its odd tilt. It's equator is nearly
perpendicular to its orbit at about 90°. This oddity may have been caused by being struck by another object,
perhaps a planetesimal. This causes different seasons within it rotation. It receives sunlight at different portions,
a hypothesis as to why there are no heavy clouded bands.
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