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Uranus Facts

Uranus Facts
Uranus was discovered in 1781 by William Herschel, and it is the seventh planet away from the sun. Uranus and Neptune are similar in the composition and are sometimes called ‘ice giants' by astronomers. Uranus is the only planet named from a Greek mythological figure, while the others are all named from Roman mythological figures. Uranus has a ring system surrounding it, and it also has many moons. It is possible to see Uranus with the naked eye but originally astronomers did not classify it as a planet due its slow orbit and its dim appearance.
Interesting Uranus Facts:
Uranus is named after the Greek mythological figure Ouranos, the God of the sky.
The north and south poles of Uranus are located where the equator lies on most other planets. This is because it tilts sideways on its axis rotation.
Uranus is the first planet to be discovered by the use of a telescope.
Uranus mass is 86,810,300,000,000,000 billion kg, which is equal to 14.536 times the Earth's mass.
Uranus' equatorial circumference is 159,354 km.
The surface temperature on Uranus is -197 degrees Celsius, sometimes being as low as -224 degrees Celsius. It is the coldest planet in our solar system.
William Herschel, who discovered Uranus, originally believed it was a comet.
William Herschel wanted to name Uranus after King George III, as Georgian Sidus.
Uranus has 13 rings, 9 of which are narrow rings, 2 of which are dusty rings, and 2 of which are outer rings.
There have been 27 moons discovered around Uranus so far.
The moons of Uranus are named after characters created by Alexander Pope and William Shakespeare.
Many Asian languages translate Uranus into sky king star.
Uranus has a slow orbit. It takes 30,685 Earth days for it to orbit the sun completely.
It might be hard to sleep all night on Uranus, if people could live there, as some parts of the planet experience night for over 40 years.
It's windy on Uranus. The wind speeds sometimes reach 250 meters per second on Uranus. This would be equal to 900 km per hour winds or 560 miles per hour on Earth.
In 1690, Uranus was recorded as a star, named 34 Tauri by John Flamsteed.
William Herschel was paid a yearly amount of 200 pounds by the Royal Family to move to Windsor and let the royals look through his telescopes.
Uranus experiences seasons, while most other planets do not.
Although Uranus is more than 14 times the mass of Earth, it is the smallest of the giant planets.
The 13 rings of Uranus were discovered in 1977 (first 9) at the Kuiper Airborne Observatory, in 1986 (2 more) by the Voyager 2, and in 2005 (another 2) by the Hubble Space Telescope.
The closest investigation of Uranus was done in 1986, by the Voyager 2. It had been launched in 1977.
There is a proposal to launch another mission to evaluate Uranus that would launch between 2020 and 2023, taking approximately 13 years to reach Uranus.


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