URANUS- Is the third largest planet and lies twice as far from the Sun as its
neighbor Saturn. It is pale blue and featureless, with a sparse ring system
and an extensive family of moons. It was the first planet to be discovered by
telescope, but little was known about it until the Voyager 2 spacecraft flew
past in January 1986.
PALE BLUE DISK- Voyager 2 images have been combined to show the
southern hemisphere of Uranus as it would appear to a human onboard the
spacecraft.
ORBIT- Uranus takes 84 Earth years to complete one orbit around the Sun.
Its axis of rotation is tipped over by 98°, and the planet moves along the
orbital path on its side. Uranus’s spin is retrograde, spinning in the opposite
direction of most planets.
SPIN AND ORBIT- Uranus's long orbit and its extreme tilt combine to
produce long seasonal differences. Each pole experiences summer when
pointing toward the Sun and winter when it is pointing away.
STRUCTURE- Uranus is big. It is four times the size of Earth and could
contain 63 Earths inside it, yet it has only 14.5 times the mass of Earth. So
the material it is made of must be less dense than that of Earth. It is made
mainly of water, methane, and ammonia ices, which are surrounded by a
gaseous byer.
URANUS INTERIOR- Uranus does not have a solid surface. The visible
surface is its atmosphere. Below this lies a layer of water and ices, which
surrounds a small core of rock and possibly ice.
URANUS AVERAGE DISTANCE FROM THE SUN
1.78 billion miles (2.87 billion km)
CLOUDTOP TEMPERATURE
-364°F (-220°C)
DIAMETER
31,763 miles (51,118 km)
VOLUME (EARTH = 1)
63.1
NUMBER OF MOONS
27
ROTATION PERIOD
17.24 hours
ORBITAL PERIOD (LENGTH OF YEAR)
84 Earth years
MASS (EARTH = 1)
14.5
GRAVITY AT CLOUDTOPS (EARTH = 1)
0.89
OBSERVATION- Uranus's remote location makes it a difficult object to view
from Earth. At magnitude 5.5, it is just visible to the naked eye and looks like
a star. There is no perceptible change in brightness when Uranus is at
opposition.
ATMOSPHERE AND WEATHER- Uranus blue color is a result of the
absorption of the incoming sunlight’s red wavelength by methane- ice clouds
within the planet's cold atmosphere. The cloudtop temperature of -364°F (-
220°C) appears to be fairly uniform across the planet.
COMPOSITION OF ATMOSPHERE- The atmosphere is made mainly of
hydrogen, which extends beyond the visible cloudtops and forms corona
around Uranus.
CLOUDS- This Keck II telescope infrared image has been processed to show
vertical structure. Yhe highest clouds appear white; mid level ones, bright
blue; and the lowest clouds, darker blue. As a by-product, the rings are
colored red.
RINGS AND MOONS- Uranus has 11 rings that together extend out from
7,700 to 15,900 miles (12,400-25,600 km) from the planet. The rings are so
widely separated and so narrow that the system has more gap than ring.
Uranus has 27 moons, the five major moons were discovered using Earth
based telescopes. Smaller ones have been found since the mid 1980’s.
FALSE- COLOR VIEW OF THE RINGS- Nine of Uranus's rings are visible in
this Voyager 2 image. The faint pastel lines are due to image enhancement.
The brightest, colorless ring (far right) is the outermost ring, epsilon. To its
left are five rings in shades of blue-green, then three in off-white.
RINGS DICOVERED- In March 1977, astronomers onboard the Kuiper
Airbone Observatory, an adapted high-flying aircraft, were preparing to
observe a rare occultation of a star by Uranus in order to measure the
planet’s diameter.
KULPER AIRBORNE OBSERVATORY- Astronomers and technicians operate
an infrared telescope, which looks out to space through an open door in the
side of the aircraft.
URANUS’S MOON- can be divided into three groups. Moving out from
Uranus they are; the small inner satellites; the five major moons, which orbit
in a regular manner; and the small outer moons, many of which follow
retrograde orbits.
THE VIEW FROM EARTH- Some of the 27 moons that orbit Uranus can be
seen in this infrared image which was taken by the Hubble Space Telescope
1998.
INNER MOON
CORDELIA- is the innermost and one of the smallest of Uranus moon. A
team of Voyager 2 astronomers discovered it on January 20, 1986. Cordelia
takes it’s name from the daughter of Lear in Shakespeare’s King Lear.
DISTANCE FROM URANUS- 30, 910 miles (49, 770 km)
ORBITAL PERIOD- 0.34 Earth days
DIAMETER- 25 miles (40 km)
SHEPHERD MOON- Cordelia is the innermost of two shepherd moons lying
on either side of Uranus’s bright outer ring.
INNER MOON
OPHELIA- is a one of a pair of moons that orbit either side of Uranus’s outer
ring, the epsilon ring. It was discovered at the same time as it’s partner.
Cordelia on January 20, 1986. The two are small not much bigger than the
particles that make up the thin, narrow ring. The moon is named after the
heroine in Shakespeare’s Hamlet.
DISTANCE FROM URANUS- 33, 400 miles (53, 790 km)
ORBITAL PERIOD- 0.38 Earth days
DIAMETER- 26 miles (42 km)
INNER MOON
PUCK- was discovered on December 30, 1985 and was the first of the 10
small moons to be found in the Voyager 2 data. It is the second farthest inner
moon from Uranus and was discovered as the probe approached the planet.
DISTANCE FROM URANUS- 53, 410 miles (86, 010 km)
ORBITAL PERIOD- 0.76 Earth days
DIAMETER- 101 miles (162 km)
MAJOR MOON
MIRANDA- Is the smallest and innermost of Uranus’s five major moons and
was discovered by Dutch-born American astronomer Gerard Kuiper on
February 16, 1948. When all five major moons were seen in close-up for the
first time, on January 24, 1986, it was Miranda that gave astronomers the
biggest surprise.
DISTANCE FROM URANUS- 80,350 miles (129,390 km)
ORBITAL PERIOD- 1.41 Earth days
DIAMETER- 300 miles (480 km)
GEOLOGICAL MIX- On the left lies an ancient terrain of rolling hills and
degraded craters; to the right is a younger terrain of valleys and ridges.
FULL DISK- The complex terrain of the bright, chevron-shaped Inverness
Corona stands out in this south polar view of Miranda.
CRATERS AND FAULTS- Many different-sized impact craters can be seen in
this 125-mile (200-km) wide region of rugged, high-elevation terrain,
indicating that it is older than the lower terrain. Faults cut across the terrain
at lower right.
MAJOR MOON
TITANIA- At a little less than half the size of the Moon, Titania is Uranus's
largest moon. This rocky world has a gray, icy surface that is covered by
impact craters. Titania was discovered by the German-born astronomer
William Herschel on January 11, 1787, using his homemade 20-ft (6-m)
telescope in his backyard in England.
DISTANCE FROM URANUS- 270,700 miles (435,910 km)
ORBITAL PERIOD- 8.7 Earth days
DIAMETER- 979 miles (1,578 km)
FULL DISK- At the top right is Titania’s largest crater, Gertrude, which is 202
miles (326 km) across. Below it, the Messina Chasmata cuts across the
moon.
MYTHS AND STORIES
QUEEN OF THE FARIES- Titania and Oberon are the king and queen of the
fairies in William Shakespeare’s play A Midsummer Night’s Dream. After a
disagreement, Oberon squeezes flower juice into Titania’s eyes as she sleeps
so that on awakening she will fall in love with the next person she sees.
Titania wakes and falls in love with Bottom, the weaver (seen here in a movie
still from 1999), who has been given an ass’s head by the impish sprite Puck.
MAJOR MOON
OBERON- Oberon was the first Uranian moon to be discovered-William
Herschel observed it before spotting Titania. It has an icy surface
pockmarked by ancient impact craters. There are several large craters
surrounded by bright ejecta rays. Hamlet, which is just below center in the
Voyager 2 image below, has a diameter of 184 miles (296 km).
DISTANCE FROM URANUS- 362,370 miles (583,520 km)
ORBITAL PERIOD- 13.46 Earth days
DIAMETER- 946 miles (1,523 km)
MAJOR MOON
ARIEL- Ariel and Umbriel were both discovered on October 24, 1851, by the
English brewer and astronomer William Lassell. Ariel is named after a spirit in
Shakespeare’s play The Tempest. Of the four largest moons, this is the
brightest, with the youngest surface. It has impact craters, but these are
relatively small-many are just 3-6 miles (5-10 km) wide.
DISTANCE FROM URANUS- 118,620 miles (191,020 km)
ORBITAL PERIOD- 2.52 Earth days
DIAMETER- 722 miles (1,162 km)
COMPLEX TERRAIN- long, broad valley faults in Ariel’s southern
hemisphere are filled with deposits and are more sparsely cratered than the
surrounding terrain.
VOYAGER 2 MOSAIC- Four Voyager 2 images were combined to produce
this view of Ariel. Kachina Chasmata slices across the top and the Domovoy
Crater is on the left, below the center. Below and to its right is the 30-mile
(50-km) wide Melusine Crater, which is surrounded by bright ejecta.
MAJOR MOON
UMBRIEL- Is the darkest of Uranus’s major moons, reflecting only 16 percent
of the light striking its surface. It is just slightly larger than Ariel, a fact
confirmed by the Voyager 2 data. Previous observations had led astronomers
to believe that Umbriel was much smaller. Unlike Ariel, Umbriel appears to
have no bright, young ray craters, which means that its surface is older.
DISTANCE FROM URANUS- 140,530 miles (226,300 km)
ORBITAL PERIOD- 4.14 Earth days
DIAMETER- 726 miles (1,169 km)
SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE- Umbriel is almost uniformly covered by impact
craters. Its one bright feature, the 81-mile (131-km) wide Wunda at the top
of this image, is unfortunately virtually hidden from view.
OUTER MOON
CALIBAN- Caliban and another small moon, Sycorax, were discovered in
September 1997. Both moons follow retrograde and highly inclined orbits.
Sycorax is the more distant of the two, at 7.6 million miles (12.2 million km)
from Uranus. They were the first of Uranus's irregular moons to be
discovered and are believed to be icy asteroids that were captured soon after
the planet's formation.
DISTANCE FROM URANUS- 4.5 million miles (7.2 million km)
ORBITAL PERIOD- 579.5 Earth days
DIAMETER- 60 miles (96 km)
CALIBAN DISCOVERED- Caliban lies within the square outline in this image,
which was taken using the Hale telescope at Mount Palomar, California. The
glow on the right is from Uranus, and the bright dots are background stars.
