Hello! It’s time for the seventh planet from the Sun, Uranus!
Size/Distance
As the second smallest gas giant and first of the ice giants, Uranus’s equatorial diameter is 31,763 miles around. It is four times wider than Earth, able to fit at least 63 of us inside!
As the seventh planet from the sun, Uranus is VERY far away. The average distance from Uranus to the Sun is 1.8 billion miles, and 19 Astronomical Units away. (Astronomical units are abbreviated as AU. That’s the average distance from the Earth to the Sun.) Sunlight takes two hours and 40 minutes to reach the surface, which is about the same time as a car trip to Springfield (from Rolla MO)!
Orbit/Rotation (This is the funky part)
Uranus’ axis tilt is a little more than 90°, making it appear to roll on its side, or even its own orbit! This makes it the only planet to do that. For a visual, most planets act like a gyroscope (a fancy version of a top); Uranus rolls like an empty toilet paper roll (Hah! Pun not intended). Scientists think it ended up that way because of a collision with another object. What that object could have been, they have no idea. Uranus is also the second planet to go the clockwise direction, with Venus joining it.
A day on Uranus is roughly 17 hours, which is less than ours. This might be because of its collision with the unnamed object I just mentioned. The same physics that act on a ball when you push it are the same in space, except for the fact that friction from air or the ground doesn’t exist. Also, if you were born when Uranus started another year and you lived past 85 years, Uranus would’ve completed ONE YEAR. That’s it. ONE.
Rings/Structure
Uranus’ rings are faint, but not as faint as Jupiter’s. The majority are a gray color, with the very outer having a reddish tone, much like Saturn.
With Uranus being an ice giant, it’s made of “icy” materials like water, methane, and ammonia. But much like Jupiter and Saturn, if you skydive, you die. The methane I mentioned is what gives Uranus its seafoam-green color. Methane absorbs all red light and reflects back that greenish tint.
P.S. Please don’t make any jokes in the comments about this planet’s name. Thank you!
Source: Uranus: Facts – NASA Science
