Uranus is the seventh planet from the Sun and the first discovered by scientists. Although Uranus is visible to the naked eye, it has long been mistaken for a star due to the dimness of the planet and its slow orbit.
Uranus (as it was commonly called after 1850 or so) was named after the Greek heavenly deity Uranus, the earliest of the lords of heaven. This is the only planet named after the Greek god, not the Roman one.
Before the name was established, many names were proposed for the new planet, including Hypercronius ("above Saturn"), Minerva (Roman goddess of wisdom). To flatter the English king George III, the name George Sidus ("Planet of George") was proposed, but the idea was unpopular outside of England.
This is just one of many interesting facts about the planet Uranus, below we have compiled a list of 10 more for children - a description of a celestial body that is very different from others.
10. Refers to ice giants
The term “ice giant” was established in the 1990s, when researchers realized that Uranus and Neptune are compositionally different from Jupiter and Saturn. Their classification in different ways better reflects the differences in the formation of outer planets, giving astronomers a clearer picture of how our solar system and others formed.
Uranus and Neptune are composed of hydrogen and helium, but they also contain heavier elements such as oxygen, carbon, nitrogen and sulfur. Under their relatively thin outer shells of hydrogen and helium, the mantles of these planets are mainly composed of compressed, slushy water and ammonia.
Rocky ice cores are also proportionally larger than the amount of gas they contain, unlike other giants. That is why Uranus and Neptune are called ice giants.
9. Emits less heat than it receives from the Sun
Its weak internal heat is explained by a small rocky core. However, there is still great uncertainty on this issue.
In fact, most of the mass of Uranus is ice. Although it is ice of high temperature and high pressure, which has various properties, such as conductive electricity (which explains the off-center magnetic field of these planets). But that’s why Uranium gives off quite a bit of heat.
8. The lowest temperature in the solar system
Scientists are not quite sure why Uranus reaches such low temperatures, despite the fact that it is much closer to the Sun than Neptune. Some speculate that this may have something to do with the strange orientation of the planet.
It is difficult to come to conclusions, since the use of distance as the cause of low temperatures is negated by the distance between Neptune and Uranus. It is believed that Uranus has an orbit with an inclination that is not similar to any other planet. Tilting causes the planet to pour a lot of heat into space, while retaining very little. Consequently, it gets colder than on other planets.
7. Atmosphere of hydrogen and helium
Uranus atmosphere consists mainly of molecular hydrogen and helium.. The third most common molecule after hydrogen and helium is methane (CH 4). This is methane in the atmosphere of Uranus, which absorbs the red spectrum of visible light and gives it a blue-green color.
Astronomers believe that the atmosphere of Uranus can be divided into three layers: the troposphere (-500 km and 50 km); the stratosphere (50 and 4000 km) and the thermosphere / corona, extending from 4000 km to 50 000 km from the surface.
6. The largest satellite - Titania
Thanks to the Voyager missions that passed through the outer solar system in the late 1970s and early 1980s, scientists were able to look at Uranus and its satellite system for the first time.
Of them none have a larger size, mass or surface area than Titaniawhich has been named accordingly. Being one of the first moons discovered around Uranus, this moon with many craters and potholes got its name in honor of the fictional Fairy Queen in Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream.
5. In 1783, Uranus was officially recognized as a planet.
On March 13, 1781, William Herschel examined the sky with his telescope in search of binary stars. His first message about the object was recorded on April 26, 1781. He originally described it as "foggy star or possibly comet”, But later dwelled on the fact that this is a comet, because it seems to have changed its position in the sky.
Although Herschel will continue to claim that what he observed was a comet, his “discovery” stimulated debate in the astronomical community about what Uranus is.
Over time, astronomers such as Johann Elert Bode will come to the conclusion that this is a planet based on an almost circular orbit. By 1783, Herschel himself recognized that it was a planet.
4. Turns almost on its side
Uranus is the only planet whose equator is almost at right angles to its orbit with a slope of 97.77 degreesperhaps as a result of a collision with an object the size of the Earth a long time ago. This unique slope causes the most extreme seasons in the solar system.
For almost a quarter of every Uranus year, the Sun shines directly above each pole, plunging the other half of the planet into a dark winter for 21 years.
Uranus is also one of two planets that rotate in the opposite direction than most planets (the other is Venus), from east to west.
3. 9 inner and 2 outer rings
Uranus has two sets of rings. The nine-ring inner system consists mainly of narrow, dark gray rings. There are two outer rings: the innermost is reddish, like dusty rings in other parts of the solar system, and the outer ring is blue, like Saturn’s E ring.
In order of increasing distance from the planet, the rings are called Zeta, 6, 5, 4, Alpha, Beta, Eta, Gamma, Delta, Lambda, Epsilon, Well and Mu. Some of the large rings are surrounded by belts of fine dust.
2. Strange weather on Uranus
Throughout its 84-year orbit, the north pole of Uranus faces the sun, and the south pole is in total darkness. And then the situation completely changes for the rest of the planet’s journey around the Sun. Instead of heating the clouds at the equator, the Sun heats one pole and then the other. You expect the pole facing the Sun to warm and the air currents will move to the other pole.
But everything happens a little differently. Weather on Uranus follows the same pattern as on Jupiter and Saturn. Weather systems are divided into bands that revolve around the planet. While Uranus has a completely different slope than Jupiter and Saturn, internal heat rises because of it. It seems that this internal heat plays a much larger role in creating the planet's weather system than heat from the Sun..
1. About 80% of the planet is made up of liquids
Like other gas giants, Uranus does not have a solid, well-defined surface. Instead, gas, liquid, and an icy atmosphere extend to the interior of the planet.
Uranus is the second least dense planet in the solar system, which indicates that it consists mainly of ice. Unlike Jupiter and Saturn, which are composed primarily of hydrogen and helium, Uranus contains only a small fraction of these light elements. It also has some rocky elements, equal somewhere from 0.5 to 1.5 Earth masses. But most of the planet is made up of ice, mainly water, methane and ammonia..