CHARACTERISTICS OF THE PLANET URANUS

Uranus is the seventh planet in solar system. It is a great blue planet

discovered by the English astronomer William Herschel in 1781 by telescope. Its
equatorial diameter is 51,118 km, 63 times the size of the Earth and 14 times the
mass of the Earth. Its size is the third only to Jupiter's and Saturn's. The axial
rotation period of Uranus is 17 hours and 14 minutes, but the orbital period is as
long as 84 years. Therefore, the movement of Uranus in the sky is very slow. A
peculiarity about Uranus is that the angle between its equatorial plane and the
orbital plane is 97.9 degrees, almost lying directly on the orbital plane, which
results in sunshine falling directly on the north or south poles. When the Sun
shines directly on the north pole, the southern hemisphere will be in dark winter.
When the situation reverses, the northern hemisphere will also fall into dark
winter. However, since Uranus is very far away from the Sun, the difference in
weather is very minimal. Its surface temperature is -221°C. The ring of Uranus
was discovered in 1977, 186 years after its discovery. The ring is very thin and
faint; therefore it is very difficult to see by small telescope.

COMPOSITION OF THE PLANET URANUS

Far, far from the sun, Uranus has a blue-green atmosphere that hints at its
makeup. One of the two ice giants, the planets composition differs somewhat
from Jupiter and Saturn in that it is made up of more ice than gas.
"Uranus and Neptune are really unique in our solar system. They're very
different planets than the other ones we think of," planetary scientist Amy Simon
said on NASA's Gravity Assist podcast. "Part of the reason we call them ice
giants is because they actually have a lot of water ice. So, while some of the
other gas giant planets are mostly hydrogen and helium, they're predominately
water and other ices."

The Composition of Uranus' Interior

The composition of Uranus' interior is methane, in

the form of ice.

Ice begins forming in the atmosphere of Uranus,

near the methane cloud deck. The amount of ice
in the air keeps increasing until there is slush, and
then solid ice. This ice is warm (for Uranus) and
can flow like the rocky underground mantle layers
of Earth.
Compared to Jupiter and Saturn, Uranus has very little metallic hydrogen, and
there is much more ice. The drawing shows many more purple ice "cubes"
compared to that of Jupiter. Because the magnetosphere comes from the
metallic layer, this means that Uranus should have a much smaller
magnetosphere than does Jupiter.

The core of Uranus is made out of heavier, rocky and metal elements.

WHO DISCOVERED THE PLANET URANUS

William Herschel

Trivia About the Discoverer of the Plants

Fact 1
Frederick William Herschel was born in Hanover, Germany on 15 November
1738 and died on 25 August 1822.

Fact 2
He went into the Military Band of Hanover like his father, before going to Britain
at the age of 19.

Fact 3
He became well known for his finding of the planet Uranus and its 2 major moons
Titania and Oberon. He also discovered the 2 moons of Saturn.

Reason why we can’t live in the Uranus

The more we learn about life on Earth, the more we realize that it can live
in some of the most inhospitable places on the planet: encased in ice, in boiling
water, and even in places with high radiation. But could life exist elsewhere in the
Solar System? Could there be life on Uranus?

Maybe, but probably not.

There are a few problems. The first is the fact that Uranus has no solid surface.
It’s mostly composed of ices: methane, water and ammonia. And then it’s
enshrouded by an atmosphere of hydrogen and helium. The second is that
Uranus is really cold. Its cloud tops measure 49 K (?224 °C), and then it gets
warmer inside down to the core, which has a temperature of 5,000 .
TRIVIA ABOUT URANUS

1. Uranus is the coldest planet in the Solar System:

Uranus is the seventh planet from the Sun, orbiting at a distance of 2.88 billion
km. But it’s still much closer than Neptune, which averages a distance of 4.5
billion km from the Sun. However, this does not prevent Uranus from being colder
than Neptune. Whereas the former experiences an average temperature of 72 K
(-201 °C/-330 °F), reaching a low of 55 K (-218 °C/-360 °F).

2. Uranus orbits the Sun on its side:

All of the planets in the Solar System rotate on their axis, with a tilt that’s similar
to the Sun. In many cases, planet’s have an axial tilt, where one of their poles will
be inclined slightly towards the Sun. For example, the axis of the Earth’s rotation
is tilted 23.5-degrees away from the Sun’s plane. Mars is similar, with a tilt of
about 24 degrees, which results in seasonal changes on both planets.

But the axial tilt of Uranus is a staggering 99 degrees! In other words, the planet
is rotating on its side. All the planets look a bit like spinning top as they go around
the Sun, but Uranus looks more like a ball rolling in a circular pattern. And this
leads to another strange fact about Uranus…

3. A Season on Uranus lasts one long day – 42 years:

A sidereal day on Uranus (that is, the time it takes for the planet to complete a
single oration on its axis) is only about 17 hours long. But the tilt of Uranus is so
pronounced that one pole or the other is usually pointed towards the Sun. This
means that a day at the north pole of Uranus lasts half of a Uranian year – 84
Earth years.

So, if you could stand on the north pole of Uranus, you would see the Sun rise in
the sky and circle around for 42 years. By the end of this long, drawn-out
“summer”, the Sun would finally dip down below the horizon. This would be
followed by 42 years of darkness, otherwise known as a single “winter” season
on Uranus.