Why move to Uranus?
By: Destinee Martin-Clarke & Jarod Vyent
Quick Facts
- Uranus is the 7th planet from the Sun, orbiting at a distance of 2.88 billion km.
- One Uranian year is 84 years long, (42 day, 42 night)
- Uranus has 27 moons
- While most planets have rocky molten cores, the center of Uranus is thought to contain icy materials
- That wind speeds on Uranus range from 90 to 360 mph
Description
- Blue-Green color
- The dull blue color of Uranus is caused by the presence of methane, which absorbs red light.
Earth’s rotation is tilted 23.5-degrees away from the Sun’s plane; and Mars is similar. But the tilt of Uranus is 99-degrees. In other words, the planet is rotating on its side.
The Moons
- Uranus has 27 moons.
- They’re actually a pretty lightweight group of moons. If you could add up all their mass, they would account for less than half the mass of Triton, Neptune’s largest moon. The largest moon, Titania, has a diameter of about half the diameter of the Earth’s moon.
Gravitational Force
- Gravitational force: 8.69 m/s²
- Even though Uranus is 14.5 times as massive as the Earth, you would only experience about 89% the force of gravity if you could stand on its surface.
Distance/Radius/Mass
- Distance from Sun: 1,787,000,000 miles (2,877,000,000 km)
- Radius: 15,759 miles (25,362 km) (Third largest planetary radius)
- Mass: 86.81E24 kg (14.54 Earth mass) (4th largest planetary mass)
Atmospheric Composition
By volume:
o Molecular hydrogen: 82.5%
o Helium: 15.2%
o Methane: 2.3%
Seasons/Weather
- One Uranian year is 84 years long, (42 day, 42 night)
- Summer on Uranus lasts one long day – 42 years
- It has been recently found that wind speeds on Uranus range from 90 to 360 mph and the planet's average temperature is a frigid -353 degrees F. The coldest temperature found in Uranus' lower atmosphere so far is -371 degrees F., which rivals Neptune's frigid temperatures.
Core
- While most planets have rocky molten cores, the center of Uranus is thought to contain icy materials. The liquid core makes up 80 percent of the mass of the planet, mostly comprised of water, methane, and ammonia ice, though it only extends to about 20 percent of the radius.
Traces of hydrocarbons are also present in the air around Uranus. Ices made up of water, ammonia, and possibly methane also exist in the atmosphere.
Rings
Uranus has rings, and the rings of Uranus are very dark. They’re also narrow, only measuring a few km wide. Astronomers think that the rings of Uranus are very young, and probably formed relatively recently, and not with the planet. It is also the coldest planet.