DETAILS ABOUT URANUS YOU MAY NOT KNOW

AN AWESOME FACT ABOUT URANUS IS THAT IT

MAKES YOU THINK YOU’RE SKINNIER. IF YOU

WEIGHED 150 POUNDS ON EARTH THEN YOU

WOULD WEIGH 136 POUNDS ON URANUS BECAUSE

ITS GRAVITY IS ONLY 8.87 M/S2 OR 29.1FT/S2

THE UPPER ATMOSPHERE OF URANUS IS COVERED

BY A METHANE HAZE THAT HIDES THE STORMS THAT

TAKE PLACE IN THE CLOUD DECKS

URANUS HAS TWO SETS OF RINGS OF VERY THIN

SET OF DARK-COLOURED RINGS. THE RING PARTICLES

ARE SMALL, RANGING FROM DUST-SIZED PARTICLES

TO SMALL BOULDERS. THERE ARE ELEVEN INNER

RINGS AND TWO OUTER RINGS

THE FIRST RINGS WERE DISCOVERED IN 1977 WHEN

URANUS PASSED IN FRONT OF A STAR AND

ASTRONOMERS WERE ABLE TO OBSERVE THE

PLANET USING THE HUBBLE TELESCOPE

URANUS HAS A TOTAL OF TWENTY-SEVEN MOONS,

MOST OF WHICH ARE NAMED AFTER CHARACTERS

IN SHAKESPEARE’S A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM.

THE FIVE MAJOR MOONS ARE CALLED TITANIA,

OBERON, MIRANDA, ARIEL, AND UMBRIEL.

UMBRIEL IS NOT FROM SHAKESPEARE BUT IS

THE “MELANCHOLY SPRITE” IN A POEM BY

ALEXANDER POPE

THE MOST INTERESTING URANIAN MOON IS MIRANDA;

IT HAS ICE CANYONS, TERRACES, AND OTHER

STRANGE-LOOKING SURFACE AREAS

URANUS HITS SOME OF THE COLDEST TEMPERATURES

OF ANY PLANET. WITH A MINIMUM TEMPERATURE OF

-224°C URANUS IS NEARLY THE COLDEST PLANET IN

THE SOLAR SYSTEM. WHILE NEPTUNE DOESN’T GET

AS COLD AS URANUS, IT IS ON AVERAGE COLDER

URANUS MAKES ONE TRIP AROUND THE SUN EVERY

EIGHTY-FOUR EARTH YEARS. DURING SOME PERIODS

IN ITS ORBIT ONE OF ITS POLES POINTS DIRECTLY AT

THE SUN AND GETS ABOUT FORTY-TWO YEARS OF

DIRECT SUNLIGHT. THE REST OF THE TIME THEY

ARE IN DARKNESS

ONLY ONE SPACECRAFT HAS FLOWN BY URANUS.

IN 1986, THE VOYAGER 2 SWEPT PAST THE PLANET

AT A DISTANCE OF 81,500 KM. IT RETURNED THE

FIRST CLOSE-UP IMAGES OF THE PLANET,

ITS MOONS, AND RINGS.