Uranus Facts
There is a long list of most capturing Uranus facts which help us to build a better understanding about the planet. The planet is the third largest in the solar system and gives the appearance of a big cue ball suspended in space.
The first photographs of Uranus were taken by Voyager 2 in 1986 and scientists were quite disappointed to find the planet with a pale blue, featureless surface. The pale blue color has been imparted by the methane in the planet’s atmosphere, which completely filters out the red light. The atmosphere also shows traces of hydrogen and helium in addition to methane.
One of the extraordinary Uranus facts is the direction of its spin, which is opposite to that of the earth. The spacecraft, which photographed this planet in 1986, also discovered some very faint rings around it. These rings were found to be made up of ice boulders, rocks and fine dust particles. The planet is known to possess 15 natural satellites (moons), ten out of which were discovered at the same time by Voyager 2. A person observing these moons orbiting Uranus will find them similar to the lights on a Ferris wheel. All the moons are believed to be 50% ice water, 30 % rock material and 20% of carbon and nitrogen compounds.
The time taken by Uranus to complete one orbit around the sun is about 84 years. It has a unique feature of rotation as it rotates on one of its sides hence while turning; it exposes one pole towards the sun and then the other. The south pole of the planet points towards the Earth.
Tilt of the axis of rotation of Uranus is 97 degrees and the magnetic field of the planet is tilted 60 degrees from the axis of rotation.
The planet was first observed by Friedrich W. Herschel, an English astronomer, but unfortunately he thought it to be a comet. Later some deep calculations and observations by him as well as others confirmed that this object was indeed a planet. Herschel named this planet as Georgium Sidus, after King George Third of England. However, after the astronomer’s death the name was changed to Uranus by German astronomer, Johann Bode. He believed that as Jupiter’s father was named Saturn similarly the name of the Saturn’s father, Uranus should be given to the planet. Some people believe that this planet has been named after the Greek God of the sky, husband of Gaia, the Goddess of the earth.
A space craft has to travel 1500000000km to reach this planet hence Voyager 2 is the only spacecraft to visit Uranus ever. Studies are being conducted to enhance the known Uranus facts. Recent observations made in Chile, reveal the probability of a 16th moon orbiting the Uranus.