URANUS

Uranus is the seventh planet from the Sun and is the third largest in the solar system. It was discovered by William Herschel in 1781. It has an equatorial diameter of 51,800 kilometers (32,190 miles) and orbits the Sun once every 84.01 Earth years. It has a mean distance from the Sun of 2.87 billion kilometers (1.78 billion miles). The length of a day on Uranus is 17 hours 14 minutes. Uranus has at least 15 moons. The two largest moons, Titania and Oberon, were discovered by William Herschel in 1787.

Uranus is tipped on its side. This unusual position is thought to be the result of a collision with a planet-sized body early in the solar system's history. Voyager 2 found that one of the most striking influences of this sideways position is its effect on the tail of the magnetic field, which is itself tilted 60 degrees from the planet's axis of rotation. The magnetotail was shown to be twisted by the planet's rotation into a long corkscrew shape behind the planet.

Uranus Statistics

Equatorial radius (km) ............................... 25,559

Mean distance from the Sun (km) ............... 2,870,990,000

Rotational period (hours) .............................. 17.9

Orbital period (years) ................................ 84.01

Tilt of axis .......................................... 97.86°

Atmospheric composition Hydrogen ............................................ 83% Helium .............................................. 15% Methane .............................................. 2%

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