Uranus

The planet Uranus.

 Uranus is the 7th planet from the Sun, orbiting at a distance of 2.88 billion km. But it’s still much closer than Neptune, which averages a distance of 4.5 billion km from the Sun. But there’s something strange about Uranus – it’s really cold. Unlike the other large planets in the Solar System, Uranus actually gives off less heat than it absorbs from the Sun. The other large planets have tremendously hot cores, and radiate infrared radiation. But something made the core of Uranus cool down to the point that it doesn’t radiate much heat. The temperature of the cloud tops on Uranus can dip down to 49 K (?224 °C).

All of the planets in the Solar System rotate on their axis, with a tilt that’s similar to the Sun. Sure, the planets are a little tilted. For example, the axis of the Earth’s rotation is tilted 23.5-degrees away from the Sun’s plane; and Mars is similar. But the tilt of Uranus is 99-degrees. In other words, the planet is rotating on its side. All the planets look a bit like spinning top as they go around the Sun, but Uranus looks more like a ball rolling on its side.

And this leads to another strange fact about Uranus…

A day on Uranus is only about 17 hours. But the tilt of Uranus works out so that one pole or the other is usually pointed towards the Sun. This means that a day at the north pole of Uranus lasts half of a Uranian year – 84 Earth years. So, if you could stand on the north pole of Uranus, you would see the Sun rise in the sky, circle around for 42 years, and finally dip down below the horizon. Then you would have 42 years of darkness.

 The least dense planet in the Solar System is Saturn. In fact, Saturn has such a low density that it would float on water if you could find a pool large enough. Uranus comes in second as the least dense planets in the Solar System. The density of Uranus is only 1.27 g/cm3. In other words, Uranus would sink in water (water is 1 g/cm3. This low density has an interesting side effect. Even though Uranus is 14.5 times as massive as the Earth, you would only experience about 89% the force of gravity if you could stand on its surface.

By KIERAN + LEIGh dAvEy aaaaand Lorna!!!!!!!