- Distance
- 19.2 AU
- Diameter
- 50,724 km
- Year
- 84 years
- Day
- 17 h 14 m
- Moons
- 28
About Uranus
Uranus is made of water, ammonia and methane ices around a small rocky core, with a hydrogen-helium atmosphere. Methane absorbs red light and gives the planet its pale blue-green colour. Its axis is tilted 98°, probably from a giant collision early in its history, so each pole gets 42 years of continuous sunlight followed by 42 years of darkness. Uranus has 13 faint dark rings and 28 known moons named after characters from Shakespeare and Pope. It is the coldest planet, with cloud-top temperatures near −224 °C. Only Voyager 2 has visited, in 1986.
- Rotates on its side
- Coldest atmosphere of any planet
- First planet discovered with a telescope, by William Herschel in 1781
Moons
| Name | Diameter | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Titania | 1,577 km | The largest moon of Uranus, marked by huge canyons and scarps suggesting the interior once expanded. | |
| Oberon | 1,523 km | The outermost of the large moons, heavily cratered with dark material on some crater floors. | |
| Umbriel | 1,169 km | The darkest of the major moons, with a mysterious bright ring called the Wunda crater. | |
| Ariel | 1,158 km | The brightest moon of Uranus, with a young surface criss-crossed by valleys and flows of ice. | |
 | Miranda | 472 km | A patchwork world of cliffs and grooved terrain, including Verona Rupes, a cliff up to 20 km high. |
In pictures