URANUS THE HIGHLY TILTED PLANET

BASIC FACTS

Uranus is the seventh planet from the sun with only Neptune and Pluto further away. It has a diameter measuring 51,800 kilometers - about four times the diameter of the earth. It was the first planet to be discovered with a telescope.

Uranus was discovered in 1781 A.D. by Sir William Herschel, a British astronomer. It has its axis tilted at an angle of 98° from the perpendicular position so that it is almost in level with its orbit around the sun. It takes only 17 hours to complete one round of its rotation. This quick rotation and the large angle of tilt make the planet appear to roll along in its orbit.

Uranus has an oval orbit along which it revolves round the sun. It takes about 30,685 earth-days (84 earth-years) to go round the sun once. But little is known so far about the surface of Uranus. However, it is believed that Uranus is surrounded by clouds. Its average temperature is -216° C.

SPECIAL FEATURES

When viewed through the best telescope, Uranus appears as a ball of gas, bluish in color. This color is because of the methane gas that is there along with hydrogen and helium in its atmosphere.

Uranus has at least 13 very faint rings around it. They consist of countless chunks of a black material which is not known till now.

Uranus has 15 known moons. Till 1986, only five of its moons were known. But the U.S. spacecraft Voyager II discovered 10 other moons in that year.

IN MYTHOLOGY

In Roman mythology, Uranus was the earliest god. He was known to be the husband of goddess Gea - the earth. The couple begot children that were known as Titans in mythology. There was a serious quarrel between the couple over their children and Gea (Earth) became separate from Uranus. After this separation Uranus lost its importance in mythology and his functions were taken over by his grandson Zeus.