Uranus

Uranus Profile
Mass: 86,810,300,000,000, 000 billion kg (14.536 x Earth)
Equatorial Diameter: 51,118 km
Polar Diameter: 49,946 km
Equatorial Circumference: 159,354 km
Known Moons: 27
Orbit Distance: 2,870,658,186 km (19.22 AU)
Orbit Period: 30,687.15 Earth days (84.02 Earth years)
Surface Temperature: -197 °C
Uranus Facts
  • Uranus, named after the the father of the Roman god Saturn, is the seventh planet in the Solar System and third of the gas giants. It is the third largest planet by diameter, yet fourth most massive.
  • Uranus rotates on its axis once every 17 hours and 14 minutes. Like Venus, it turns in a retrograde direction which is opposite to the direction Earth and the other six planets turn.
  • It takes Uranus 84 Earth years to orbit the Sun. Its axis is at 98 degrees, which means it almost lies sideways as it orbits the Sun. This means that the north and south poles of Uranus lie near where the equator is on Earth. During parts of its orbit one or other of the poles directly face the Sun which means the planet gets around 42 years of direct sunlight followed by 42 years of darkness.
  • A collision may have caused the unusual tilt of Uranus. The theory is that an Earth-sized planet may have collided with Uranus which forced its axis to drastically shift.
  • Uranus wind speeds can reach up to 900 km per hour. This is roughly 560 miles per hour.
  • The mass of Uranus is about 14.5 times the mass of Earth, making it the lightest of the four gas giants of the outer solar system.
  • Uranus has 13 presently known rings. All except two Uranian are extremely narrow – they are usually a few kilometres wide. It is believed that the rings are probably quite young. The matter within the rings is thought to be parts of a moon or moons that were shattered by high speed impacts with an object such as a comet or asteroid.
  • Uranus is the coldest planet in the solar system. The minimum surface temperature on Uranus is -224°C – making it the coldest of the eight planets. Its upper atmosphere is covered with a haze made mostly of methane which hides the storms taking place in its cloud decks.
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