Uranus

Jump to: Intro, Characteristics, Features

INTRO:
       Uranus is the seventh planet in our 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) "your anus" nor "urine us".

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CHARACTERISTICS:
Original artwork of Uranus by Rick Sternbach. Courtesy of NASA/ Ames Research Lab.        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.

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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.

Discovering Uranus

Next planet:
Neptune

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