Uranus (planet)

Uranus (pronounced "YOOR-uh-nus", or "yer-ANE-us") is the seventh planet from the Sun. It is a gas giant and the third largest by diameter. Neptune is more massive. It was named after the Greek god Ouranos.

Physical characteristics

Uranus is composed primarily of rock and various ices, with only about 15% hydrogen and a little helium (in contrast to Jupiter and Saturn which are mostly hydrogen). Uranus (and Neptune) are in many ways similar to the cores of Jupiter and Saturn minus the massive liquid metallic hydrogen envelope. It appears that Uranus does not have a rocky core like Jupiter and Saturn but rather that its material is more or less uniformly distributed. Uranus' cyan color is due to the adsorption of red light by atmospheric methane.

One of the most distinctive features of Uranus is its axial tilt, almost ninety degrees. As a result of this tilt, for part of its orbit one pole faces the Sun continually while the other faces away continually. At the other side of Uranus' orbit the orientation of the poles towards the sun is reversed, and at the two sections of its orbit between these two extremes the Sun rises and sets around the equator normally.

At the time of Voyager 2's passage, Uranus' south pole was pointed almost directly at the Sun. Note that the labelling of this pole as "south" is actually in some dispute. Uranus can either be described as having an axial tilt of slightly more than 90°, or it can be described as having an axial tilt of slightly less than 90° and rotating in a retrograde direction; these two descriptions are exactly equivalent as physical descriptions of the planet but result in different definitions of which pole is the North Pole and which is the South Pole.

One result of this odd orientation is that Uranus' polar regions receive more energy input from the Sun than do its equatorial regions. Uranus is nevertheless hotter at its equator than at its poles. The mechanism underlying this is unknown. The reason for Uranus' extreme axial tilt is also not known. It is speculated that perhaps during the formation of the planet it collided with an enormous protoplanet, resulting in the skewed orientation.

It appears that Uranus' extreme axial tilt also results in extreme seasonal variations in its weather. During the Voyager 2 flyby, Uranus' banded cloud patterns were extremely bland and faint. Recent Hubble Space Telescope observations, however, show a more strongly banded appearance now that the Sun is approaching Uranus' equator. By 2007 the Sun will be directly over Uranus' equator.

Uranus' magnetic field is odd in that it is not centered on the center of the planet and is tilted almost 60° with respect to the axis of rotation. It is probably generated by motion at relatively shallow depths within Uranus. Neptune has a similarly displaced magnetic field, suggesting that this is not necessarily a result of Uranus's axial tilt. The magnetotail is twisted by the planet's rotation into a long corkscrew shape behind the planet. The magnetic field's source is unknown; the electrically conductive, super-pressurized ocean of water and ammonia once thought to lie between the core and the atmosphere now appears to be nonexistent.

The exploration of Uranus

Uranus was the first planet discovered that was not known in ancient times, though it had actually been seen many times before but ignored as simply another star (the earliest recorded sighting was in 1690 when John Flamsteed cataloged it as 34 Tauri). Sir William Herschel discovered the planet in 1781, and originally called it Georgium Sidus (George's Star) in honour of King George III of England. French astronomers began calling it Herschel before German Johann Bode proposed the name Uranus, after the Greek god. The name didn't come into common usage until around 1850.

The moons of Uranus

Uranus has 27 known moons. The first two were discovered by William Herschel in 1787, and named, by his son, after characters from Shakespeare's A Midsummer Nights Dream, as Titania and Oberon. Two more moons discovered by William Lassell in 1851 were named Ariel and Umbriel; Gerard Kuiper discovered the moon Miranda in 1948. All moons of Uranus are named after characters from Shakespeare or Alexander Pope.

The flyby of the Voyager 2 space probe in January of 1986 led to the discovery of another 10 moons (one additional satellite S/1986 U 10 was found later from old Voyager photos). Eleven additional moons have been discovered by telescope since the Voyager flyby. Uranus has a faint planetary ring system, composed of dark particulate matter up to 10 m in diameter. The ring system was discovered in 1977 by James L. Elliot, Edward W. Dunham, and Douglas J. Mink.

Uranus' natural satellites

Name	Diameter (km)	Mass (kg)	Mean orbital radius (km)	Orbital period
Cordelia	40	4.5 × 1016 ?	49,770	0.335034 days
Ophelia	42	5.4 × 1016 ?	53,790	0.376400 days
Bianca	51	9.3 × 1016 ?	59,170	0.434579 days
Cressida	80	3.43 × 1017 ?	61,780	0.463570 days
Desdemona	64	1.78 × 1017 ?	62,680	0.473650 days
Juliet	93	5.57 × 1017 ?	64,350	0.493065 days
Portia	135	1.68 × 1018 ?	66,090	0.513196 days
Rosalind	72	2.54 × 1017 ?	69,940	0.558460 days
S/2003 U2*	10	Unknown	74,800	0.618 days
Belinda	80	3.57 × 1017 ?	75,260	0.623527 days
S/1986 U10*	20	Unknown	76,420	0.638 days
Puck	162	2.89 × 1018 ?	86,010	0.761833 days
S/2003 U1*	10	Unknown	97,734	0.923 days
Miranda	472	6.6 × 1019	129.39	1.413479 days
Ariel	1158	1.35 × 1021	191,020	2.520379 days
Umbriel	1170	1.17 × 1021	266,300	4.144177 days
Titania	1578	3.52 × 1021	435,910	8.705872 days
Oberon	1523	3.01 × 1021	583,520	13.463239 days
S/2001 U3*	12	Unknown	4,276,000	-266.6 days**
Caliban	98	7.3 × 1017 ?	7,231,000	-579.7 days**
Stephano	20	6 × 1015 ?	8,004,000	-677.4 days**
Trinculo	10	Unknown	8,504,000	-759.0 days**
Sycorax	190	5.4 × 1018 ?	12,179,000	-1288.3 days**
S/2003 U3*	11	Unknown	14,345,000	1694.8 days
Prospero	30	2.1 × 1016 ?	16,256,000	-1977.3 days**
Setebos	30	2.1 × 1016 ?	17,418,000	-2234.8 days**
S/2001 U2*	12	Unknown	20,901,000	-2823.4 days**

^*Awaiting confirmation and naming

^**negative orbital periods indicate a retrograde orbit around Uranus (opposite to the planet's rotation)

sources 1, 2

Note: These sources give no information on the masses for the small satellites; some data have changed greatly so it is unlikely that these old values are correct.

Uranus, the Magician is a movement in Gustav Holst's The Planets suite.

Referenced By