-
Uranus was discovered in 1781 by William Herschel. It was called Uranus
because in mythology Uranus is the father of Saturn, and Saturn is the
father of Jupiter, and they follow each other in order around the Sun.
-
Uranus is 4 times the size of Earth.
-
It takes Uranus 84 Earth years to go around the Sun one time.
-
Its atmosphere is mostly helium and hydrogen, but it also contains methane
which gives it its unusual greenish color.
-
It has a strange magnetic field that gives it an electric glow.
-
It has a system of 13 known faint rings, but because the planet is tilted,
the rings don't appear to circle the center of the planet. The rings are
made of chunks of an unknown black material.
-
The axis of Earth is tilted, so the poles get about 6 months of daylight
and 6 months of night. The axis of Uranus is tilted much more, so that
its poles get 42 YEARS of daylight and night.
-
The top layer of Uranus is frozen gas. Beneath this there is a thick
layer of poisonous ammonia and water. The core, or center, of Uranus is
about the size of Earth and is made up of ice and rock.
-
Uranus has 21 known moons. Some scientist believe that one of its moons,
Miranda, looks like an accident victim whose parts have been haphazardly
sewn together. They believe it is a "formed again" moon, a moon that was
destroyed by a comet, and then pulled together again by gravity.
-
The most unusual characteristic of Uranus is that it lies on its side.
Its axis is tilted almost completely to the horizontal. Its moons go around
it like a Ferris wheel, instead of a horse on a merry-go-round. The sun
shines more on its poles than on its equator.
-
Uranus is the most distant planet visible to the naked eye.
-
Uranus is the half way point of all the planets in the solar system.
|
