Uranus General Information
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INTRO:

       Uranus is the seventh planet in out solar system. It is the farthest 
planet that can be seen without the use of a telescope. It is about 1,786,400,000 
miles from the sun. The diameter is 31,763 miles.

       Uranus is made up of a swirl of gases, liquids, and solids. It has no 
solid surface to stand on. The solids have settled to the center of the planet.
These include silicon, iron, and a basalt like rock. The core of Uranus is about 
the size of Earth. At the outer edge of the core, he solid elements mix with 
the atmosphere around the rock. It is an ocean that is about 5,000 miles deep.
It is thought to be mostly water and a mixture of liquid ammonia and methane. 
An interesting thing about Uranus’ ocean, is that it is extremely hot-almost 8,000 
degrees Fahrenheit. At the surface of this ocean, there is a gaseous layer 
that is 4,000 to 5,000 miles deep. This layer of atmosphere is mostly liquid 
hydrogen, methane and some helium. The methane gas gives Uranus its blue-green 
color. Above the gas layer is another layer made of hydrogen and helium.

       It is necessary that one carefully pronounces this planet’s name in order 
to keep from embarrassment. It is pronounced "YUR-uh-nus" and not 
(pardon our language) "you’re anus" nor "urine us".

CHARACTERISTICS:

        Most planets orbit the sun by rotating and creating days and nights as 
Earth does. Uranus does not. Instead, its poles are on its sides. The planet 
spins from north to south instead of west to east. It takes it 17.25 hours to 
spin around completely. It is tilted so far on its side that it actually lies 
almost level with its orbital path around the sun. Most planets axis’ tilt 
less than 30 degrees, but Uranus tilts at 98 degrees.

      Traveling on an ovular path around the sun, it speeds through space at 
4.25 miles per second. It takes 84 years for it to complete one orbit or one 
Uranus year. The mass of this planet is 14.5 times larger than that of Earth. 
Its density is about 1.27 grams per cubic centimeter and the force of gravity 
is ninety percent of that on Earth. So if one were to weigh 100 pounds on 
Earth, he would weigh only 90 pounds on Uranus.

      The atmosphere is composed of many gases. It is 83% hydrogen, 15% helium, 
2% methane, and it has small amounts of ethane as well as other gases. The 
temperature of Uranus is about –355 degrees Fahrenheit. The interior 
temperature can rise fast and even reach up to 4,200 degrees in the ocean and 
12,600 degrees at the core.

      Uranus is surrounded by a strong magnetic field. Most planets have 
magnetic fields lined up with their north and south poles. But Uranus’s 
magnetic field is closer to the equator than its poles. This makes the magnetic 
field wobble back and forth as the planet spins. The field’s shape is 
especially strange. It has a long, gently curving tail on the side away from 
the sun. The tail keeps twisting and turning as the planet moves.

FEATURES:

      Uranus has fifteen known satellites. The largest is Titania with a diameter 
of 980 miles and the smallest being 16 miles, called Cordelia.

      Like all of the other giant outer planets, Uranus has rings. It has at 
least eleven thin, dark rings. The width ranges from three to sixty miles and 
are no more than 33 feet thick. They are composed of ice and covered by a 
layer of carbon.

      It has a strong magnetic field. The axis is tilted 59 degrees from the 
axis of rotation. It has trapped high energy, electrically charged particles 
in radiation belts around the planets. As the particles move back and forth, 
the emit radio waves but are too weak to be detected on Earth.

THE FUTURE:
       In the first two hundred years after Uranus was discovered, we learned 
very little about this planet. It was too far away to be observed in great 
detail from Earth. It all changed in 1984 when Voyager 2 gathered enough 
information to increase our knowledge of Uranus. Before the Voyager was 
launched, the scientists had planned to send a whole series of space probes 
to explore the planets. They wanted to take advantage of the position of the 
planets since they were all aligned on the same side of the sun. This is a 
rare occurrence and would not happen again for the next 175 years. This 
mission was called the Grand Tour. Due to a cut on the funds, only two probes 
were sent to study Jupiter and Saturn. Because the information that was sent 
back to us was so valuable, the scientists were allowed to reprogram the 
Voyager so it could fly by Uranus and Neptune. The probe used the gravity of 
the planet that it passes to go out further at a greater speed to reach the 
next planet. It took eight and a half years for the Voyager to travel from 
Earth to Uranus. Without the planets gravitational assist, it would have taken 
some thirty years.

       Scientists listen to messages that the Voyager sends back as it 
searches for the point where the solar winds die and charged ions no longer 
travel away from the sun but instead towards it. This is the edge of our solar 
system. A lack of funds continues to force the space program to move slowly. 
No new probes were planned for Uranus in this past century. Uranus will remain 
a mystery two billion miles away.