Down is Up onUranus

The Sideways Planet

Stats• Sidereal year: 84 Earth Years

Orbits with equator at gravity:

90 degrees to 8.69 m/s2

its path around

the sun.

sidereal day:

-.718 days

(retrograde)

Mass: 8.68E25 kg,

Radius: 25,362 km

Size perspective

Core

inner coresilicate/Iron-Nickelrock

Mantle: waterammonia, methane ices

Rest is gaseous hydrogen, helium, methane

Upper Atmosphere

• Atmosphere: Hydrogen, Helium, small amount of Methane

• Ice Giant: Known as the

• coldest planet

• Made of icy materials,

• water, methane and ammonia

Mass: 8.68E25 kg, Radius: 25,362 km

Inclination

• First: Remember that Uranus orbits with its poles facing the sun and opposite the sun. 98 degree tilt.

When the North Pole faces the sun then for 42 years there is daylight and 42 years there is night.

Eccentricity

• e = .047

• Also: Uranus has a retrograde rotation.

• The best information: http://www.newtonsapple.org.uk/uranus-planet-of-diamonds/

• It is tipped 60 degrees with respect to the axis of rotation

• It is so skewed that it winds up like a corkscrew as Uranus rotates.

• This is known by radio

• bursts from Uranus every

• 17.24 hours. These apparently come from locations in Uranus’s interior.

Magnetic Field

Rings

• Yes, Uranus has ringsDiscovered byAussies whenthey noticedstars blinking. It was the rings interfering withtheir view. picturefrom Voyager 2. White marksare dust particles

The Color is really Blue

• The atmosphere of Methane absorbs the red wavelengths of light and prevents it from bouncing back.

• All we can see is the blue-green photons reflected into space.

• This is the coldest planet of all.

More Fun Facts

• Second least dense planet to Saturn

• Has rings that are visible with a backyard telescope. They are dark and only a few km wide.

• First planet discovered after the invention of the telescope.

• Can see Uranus without a telescope.

Moons

• 27 Moons

• Largest is Titania, then Oberon, Umbriel, Ariel, then Miranda

Titaniafeatures: frost, maybe

tectonics, very gray like mostUranianMoons.Sidereal Year:8.76 Earth days.

Miranda

This photo is a montage.

https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/profile.cfm?Object=Ura_Miranda

1.4 Earth days toorbitSmallest ofthe top five andclosest to the planet.

Other moons

• https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/profile.cfm?Object=Uranus&Display=Sats

Some websites for Uranus

• http://www.seasky.org/solar-system/uranus.html