Uranus
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*artist's
drawing
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average
distance
from the Sun:
about 2,875,000,000 km
diameter: 31,693 miles = 51,118 km
mass: about 86,630,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 kg
temperature: -360 F at cloud tops
number of moons: at least 27
any rings? yes
length of a year: 83.75 of our years
length of a day: 17.24 hours
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Just like Jupiter and Saturn, Uranus
is one of the Gas Giants. It's covered in an ocean of hydrogen... Under
this, is water (which might be ice) and, then, a rocky core. The
atmosphere is 84% hydrogen and 14% helium (like Jupiter). But, Uranus's
atmosphere is 2% methane which is what makes Uranus look blue. |
Well, there IS water... But it's
underneath the hydrogen ocean, so you wouldn't be able to get to it for
drinking. Also, because of this ocean, you wouldn't be able to stand
anywhere. The air is poisonous to breathe too. So, nope, you can't live
there!
To escape Uranus' gravity and get out
into space, a rocket has to travel at a speed of 47,623 mph or 21.3 km/sec. That's about
733 times faster than your parents are allowed to
drive on a U.S. highway!
Uranus has 15 moons (the date they were discovered
in after each one): Cordelia (1986), Ophelia (1986), Bianca (1986),
Cressida (1986), Desdemona (1986), Juliet (1986), Portia (1986),
Rosalind (1986), Belinda (1986), Puck (1985), Miranda (1948), Ariel
(1851), Umbriel (1851), Titania (1787), Oberon (1787), Caliban (1997),
Sycorax (1997), Prospero (1999), Setebos (1999), Stephano (1999), and
1986U10 (1999).
The moons that were discovered in 1986 were found
by our flying robot explorer, Voyager 2.
Can you guess, just by looking at the discovery
dates, which of Uranus's moons are the biggest? (The answer is at the
bottom of the page.)
For a long time, we didn't think
Uranus had rings. They are made of dark carbon stuff and don't don't
reflect light... so, we couldn't see them. They were finally discovered
by accident when they blocked the light of a distant star that was
passing behind Uranus.
One
of the coolest things about Uranus is that it rotates in the opposite
direction of most of the other planets! If we look down on the planets from
above we see that Uranus rotates clockwise (the way a clock's hand move
around the clock) and all the other planets (except Venus and Pluto) and
all the moons spin
counterclockwise (like if the clock's hands were moving backwards).
Check out this picture:
Also, Uranus somehow got knocked on
its side! (Look back up at our picture.) Scientists figure that
something really big must have run into Uranus to have gotten it this
way.
Sources:
In Quest of the Universe, 2nd ed. by Karl F. Kuhn
Voyages Through the Universe, 2nd ed. by Fraknoi, Morrison and Wolff
Universe by Kaufmann
The Complete Idiot's Guide to Astronomy by Christopher De Pree and Alan
Axelrod
The Astronomy Cafe by Sten Odenwald
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