Uranus

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Joseph Buell
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Uranus: Huge

Post by Joseph Buell » Fri Jan 15, 2021 3:28 am

Uranus is about four times wider than Earth. If Earth were a large apple, Uranus would be the size of a basketball.
Source: NASA
Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood.

Joseph Buell
Science Officer
Posts: 100
Joined: Tue Dec 22, 2020 3:38 pm
Location: Milky Way

Uranus: Seventh Wanderer

Post by Joseph Buell » Fri Jan 15, 2021 3:28 am

Uranus orbits our Sun, a star, and is the seventh planet from the Sun at a distance of about 1.8 billion miles (2.9 billion kilometers).
Source: NASA
Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood.

Joseph Buell
Science Officer
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Joined: Tue Dec 22, 2020 3:38 pm
Location: Milky Way

Uranus: Short-ish Day, Longish Year

Post by Joseph Buell » Fri Jan 15, 2021 3:29 am

Uranus takes about 17 hours to rotate once (a Uranian day), and about 84 Earth years to complete an orbit of the Sun (a Uranian year).
Source: NASA
Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood.

Joseph Buell
Science Officer
Posts: 100
Joined: Tue Dec 22, 2020 3:38 pm
Location: Milky Way

Uranus: Ice Giant

Post by Joseph Buell » Fri Jan 15, 2021 3:30 am

Uranus is an ice giant. Most of its mass is a hot, dense fluid of "icy" materials – water, methane and ammonia – above a small rocky core.
Source: NASA
Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood.

Joseph Buell
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Posts: 100
Joined: Tue Dec 22, 2020 3:38 pm
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Uranus: Gassy

Post by Joseph Buell » Fri Jan 15, 2021 3:31 am

Uranus has an atmosphere made mostly of molecular hydrogen and atomic helium, with a small amount of methane.
Source: NASA
Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood.

Joseph Buell
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Posts: 100
Joined: Tue Dec 22, 2020 3:38 pm
Location: Milky Way

Uranus: Many Moons

Post by Joseph Buell » Fri Jan 15, 2021 3:34 am

Uranus has 27 known moons, and they are named after characters from the works of William Shakespeare and Alexander Pope.
Source: NASA
Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood.

Joseph Buell
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Posts: 100
Joined: Tue Dec 22, 2020 3:38 pm
Location: Milky Way

Uranus: The Other Ringed World

Post by Joseph Buell » Fri Jan 15, 2021 3:34 am

Uranus has 13 known rings. The inner rings are narrow and dark and the outer rings are brightly colored.
Source: NASA
Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood.

Joseph Buell
Science Officer
Posts: 100
Joined: Tue Dec 22, 2020 3:38 pm
Location: Milky Way

Uranus: A Bit Lonely

Post by Joseph Buell » Fri Jan 15, 2021 3:36 am

Voyager 2 is the only spacecraft to fly by Uranus. No spacecraft has orbited this distant planet to study it at length and up close.
Source: NASA
Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood.

Joseph Buell
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Posts: 100
Joined: Tue Dec 22, 2020 3:38 pm
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Uranus: Lifeless

Post by Joseph Buell » Fri Jan 15, 2021 3:36 am

Uranus cannot support life as we know it.
Source: NASA
Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood.

Joseph Buell
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Posts: 100
Joined: Tue Dec 22, 2020 3:38 pm
Location: Milky Way

Uranus: One Cool Fact

Post by Joseph Buell » Fri Jan 15, 2021 3:37 am

Like Venus, Uranus rotates east to west. But Uranus is unique in that it rotates on its side.
Source: NASA
Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood.

Joseph Buell
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Posts: 100
Joined: Tue Dec 22, 2020 3:38 pm
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Juliet

Post by Joseph Buell » Fri Jan 15, 2021 3:47 am

Uranus has a moon named Juliet, but not one named Romeo.
Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood.

Charlotte Bridgestone
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Re: Uranus

Post by Charlotte Bridgestone » Thu Jun 03, 2021 12:37 pm

Some more facts about Uranus: it became the first planet discovered with a telescope. It was discovered by William Herschel in 1781 using a telescope of his own design. After 2 years, it was found that this is a planet, and not a comet or star, as previously thought.
And the chemical element uranium was named after the planet Uranus. The discoverer of radioactive uranium, Martin Heinrich Klaproth, thus wanted to support the proposal of the astronomer Johann Bode to name the new planet "Uranium" instead of "George's Star", as the discoverer Herschel suggested to name it.

Prometheus
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Re: Juliet

Post by Prometheus » Sat Nov 13, 2021 8:36 am

Joseph Buell wrote: Fri Jan 15, 2021 3:47 am Uranus has a moon named Juliet, but not one named Romeo.
There is actually a crater called Romeo, on another moon of Uranus called Oberon.

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