Uranus

[History | Information | Moons | Data]

History

Uranus is named after the Roman god of the sky. Uranus was discovered in 1781 by Sir William Herschel. He studied the sky and saw an object in his telescope which was disk-shaped and too large to be a star. Scientists found that it was a planet because it moved against the background of stars and didn't grow a tail like a comet.
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Information

Uranus does not have many surface features, it has an "uninterrupted" pale blue surface. It doesn't have color bands that are a distinctive part on Jupiter and Saturn. Scientists think that this is due to its rotation. It rotates about its axis almost in the plane of its orbit. Instead of spinning up and down, it spins sideways. This rotational pattern keeps Uranus from having a dynamic weather pattern. Half the planet has almost constant heating for half the year, while other planets have quick heating and cooling as they rotate about their axis. This was probably caused by a large impact by foreign object during its formation.
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Moons

The moons of Uranus are named after characters in Shakespearean plays. Moons are named after Juliet and Puck, as well as other famous characters. Two moons are named after characters in Pope's Rape of the Lock, Umbrial and Belinda.
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Data

Distance from Sun: Mean— 1,786,400,000 mi. Shortest— 1,702,100,000 mi. Greatest— 1,870,800,000 mi. Closest approach to Earth— 1,607,000,000 mi. Length of year (earth-days)— 30,685 Average orbital speed— 4.23 mi. per sec. Diameter at equator— 31,763 mi. Rotation period— 17 hrs. 8 min. Tilt of axis "(degrees)— 97.92 Temperature— -357 *F Atmosphere: Pressure— no surface Gasses— Hydrogen, helium, methane, Mass (Earth=1)— 14.54 Density (g/cubic cm)— 1.27 Gravity (Earth=1)— 0.91 Number of known satellites— 15

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