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Your Anus, oh my… so sorry, not an attempt at a childish joke, it was actually that darn auto correct… The seventh planet from the Sun, Your anus… Good lord! I’m turning off auto correct right now I promise. Enough hilarious childish humor: Below are some facts about Uranus.
Uranus is the third largest planet in our solar system, behind Jupiter and Saturn. Seventh from the sun, Uranus is one the two ice giant planets. While it’s atmosphere is similar to that of Jupiter and Saturn, Uranus also contains some ices, like water, ammonia, and methane.
1. Uranus was the first planet to be discovered in modern history in 1781
The six planets between Uranus and the sun (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn) were all discovered by ancient civilizations. Due to its dimness, Uranus was first discovered by William Herschel in 1781. At first he thought Uranus was a comet rather than a planet and named it “Georgian Sidus” after King George III. The name didn’t take and the later confirmed planet was dubbed Uranus for the ancient Greek god.
2. Uranus takes its time rotating around the Sun
At a distance of 1.8 billion miles (2.88 billion km) from the Sun, it takes Uranus 84 Earth years to orbit the Sun. Since it’s discovery in 1781, Uranus is still completing its third orbit (Those are some long years).
3. A season on Uranus lasts 42 years!
Uranus orbits the Sun at a 97.77° tilt. This means that one pole of years gets 42 years of continuous sunlight (known as a Uranian “summer” season) , while the other gets 42 years of darkness (known as a Uranian “winter” season).
4. Uranus is the coldest planet in our solar system
With minimum surface temperatures reaching a bone chilling -372° F (-224° C) Uranus is the coldest place in the Solar System.
5. Like Venus, Uranus spins clockwise
Uranus like Venus, spins in retrograde rotation. Every other planet spins in a counter-clockwise fashion, while Venus and Uranus spin clockwise. Due to Uranus’s tilt, if analyzed from the Sun’s north pole, Venus is the only planet with opposing spin in our Solar system.
6. Voyager 2 is the only spacecraft to have visited the planet
Launched by NASA in 1977, Voyager 2 was the twin of the Voyager 1 probe. On route to its departure from the Solar system, Voyager 2 visited Uranus in 1986. The probe came within 50,600 miles (81,500 km) from the planet’s top, found two new rings, and discovered 11 new moons.
7. Uranus has 27 moons
The outer planets have a large number of natural satellites. The interesting thing about Uranus’s (I can’t stop giggling writing this) moons, is that they are named after characters from Shakespeare and Alexander Pope’s works. The five main moons are Miranda, Ariel, Umbriel, Titania and Oberon.
8. Uranus receives 1/400th the energy that Earth receives from the Sun
9. On Uranus it rains diamonds!
Need to get a big rock to impress the girlfriend? Why not take a quick trip to Uranus or Neptune. Scientists believe that it rains diamonds on both of these ice giants. The hypothesis is that when large lightning storms, which happen often, strike methane (CH4), carbon (C) atoms are broken away and clump in soot. These carbon clumps then fall lower into the atmosphere where the extreme pressure and temperatures squeeze them into solid diamonds! That is some expensive rain!
Scientists think that carbon oceans filled with solid diamond icebergs are possible on Uranus and Neptune. Woot Money!
