Planet Uranus Facts

1. Uranus is named after the Greek god of the sky. Uranus was the husband of Gaia, the goddess of the Earth.

2. The orbital speed of Uranus is 6.6 km/sec

... 3. A year on Uranus is equal to 84.01 Earth Years

4. Uranus is the third largest planet in the Solar System.

5. The atmosphere of Uranus is composed of hydrogen, helium, and methane. The methane in the atmosphere absorbs red light, giving the planet a blue-green color.

6. Uranus is considered unusual because the planet is tipped on its side. The poles actually point towards the Sun. This is due to the fact that its magnetic field is tilted 60 degrees from the axis of rotation.

7. Voyager 2 is the only spacecraft to have visited Uranus.

8. Like Venus, Uranus spins from east to west, which is opposite from the spin of Earth.

9. A day on Uranus is equal to a little more than 17 hours on Earth.

10. Uranus maximum distance from the Sun is 3 billion km (1.88) billion miles

11. Uranus minimum distance from the Earth is 2.6 billion km (1.6 billion miles)

12. Diameter of Uranus is 51,488 km (32,000 miles)

13. The 27 moons of Uranus are named after characters created by William Shakespeare and Alexander Pope.

14. William Herschel identified Titania and Oberon in 1787, these are the first two moons of Uranus that were discovered.

15. Uranus has 13 unique rings. They are named using Greek symbols and other numerical values: 1986U2R/ζ, 6, 5, 4, α, β, η, γ, δ, λ, ε, ν, μ

16. If you weigh 100 lbs, your weight on Uranus would be 89 lbs. (multiply your actual weight by 0.89)