Uranus: The Ice Giant

The characteristics of Uranus are vastly different from the ones on Earth, as Uranus cannot support any form of life. There is much to Uranus that makes it impossible for us to live on. Things such as temperature, the atmosphere, and it’s distance from the sun. The atmosphere has gases that make it impossible for us to live on. Since there are so many gasses that we cannot tolerate, there is a minimal amount of oxygen on Uranus. In fact, the whole planet is a gas giant, which means it is completely made of gas. Therefore, no life form would be able to live on Uranus, due to the fact that you cannot walk on Uranus.

Neptune is the eighth and farthest planet from the Sun in the Solar System. It is the fourth-largest planet by diameter and the third-largest by mass. Neptune is 17 times the mass of Earth and is somewhat more massive than its near-twin Uranus, which is 15 times the mass of Earth but not as dense.[12] On average, Neptune orbits the Sun at a distance of 30.1 AU, approximately 30 times the Earth–Sun distance. Named for the Roman god of the sea, its astronomical symbol is ♆, a stylised version of the god Neptune's trident.

Uranus is the seventh planet from the sun and is the third largest planet in the solar system. Since it is a small giant it is only four times larger than Earth. Uranus is mostly made up of rock and ices. Like most of the other outer planets Uranus atmosphere is made up of hydrogen, helium, and methane. Having methane in Uranus atmosphere causes its greenish color. The methane filters incoming sunlight and the scattering of light gives Uranus its greenish color. Uranus also has rings that are narrow, dark, and made out of narrow particles of dust. The rings being so narrow and dark causes us not to be able to see them as well as we see Saturn's. Uranus is tilted on its side, so its axis of rotation is tilted almost 98o and lies almost

Uranus orbits the same distance from the sun consistently and has had long winters which could last decades, when the sun’s rays reach far latitudes that hit Uranus. This causes the atmosphere to start an enormous storm which starts the beginning of spring. Because Uranus is tilted 98 degrees it causes 21 year seasons. Neptune is a slow planet, because its

I decided to do further research on the discovery of the planet Uranus because of my interest in the night sky. It was very interesting to learn about how this planet was discovered. Actually the planet Uranus was seen before it was actually discovered that it was a planet. People thought that it was a star. Uranus is really hard to see with just your eyes so the ancient civilizations probably thought it was a distant star. Later on after the invention of the telescope in the 1600’s it was actually cataloged as a star, star 34 tauri, by John Flamsteed. William Herschel discovered that it was a planet quite on accident. He was very interested in astronomy and was cataloging binary stars when he discovered an odd moving

Since the time people have looked in the sky and studied stars, Uranus has been seen and know, but not as a planet, but instead as a star. Uranus was recorded in Hipparchus’ star catalogue (128 BC) as a star, and remained as a star until 1781 when William Herschel found something particular strange about the so called star.

“Perhaps most important for the science of astronomy is that the discovery of Uranus began the search for other undiscovered planets in our solar system. It was the beginning of a second phase in the discovery of planets, during which Neptune and Pluto were discovered.”

William Herschel, as an amateur astrologist, first discovered Uranus while carefully searching the sky for double stars. He wanted to compare paired stars and record which was the further of the pair. In the year 1781 he noticed light reflecting off a surface of what he originally thought to be a comet. It wasn’t until the summer 1782 that he first referred to it as “his planet” and then only after multiple correspondences with the Royal Society. With in the correspondence he asked for secondary opinions on the “comet” and many members of the Royal society believed it to be either a comet or a planet. The discover lead to questions such as how far away is it. From there it was discovered that the planet was past Saturn which is how it gained

William Herschel started as a musician who composed several symphonies. Later he found an interest in mathematics and astronomy. Because of this interest, he eventually found a planet that became known as Uranus.

Seasons on Uranus are intense. This is due to the planet’s extreme tilt of ninety-seven degrees. This means the poles get direct sunlight for years at a time during the planets orbit. The other half of the period, when the Sun is directly above the equator, the planet experiences sunrises and sunsets with the rotation of the planet. This time would make the day about seventeen hours, or one full rotation of the planet. Another cause for the seasons on Uranus to be strange is that it takes eighty-four Earth years to complete an orbit. This means that each pole receives about twenty-one years of direct sunlight each orbital period. The seasons on Uranus differ from the other planets in our solar system because of its tilt and orbital period.

In 1930, Clyde Tombaugh, an astronomer from the United States, discover what was first believed to be the ninth planet in our solar system, Pluto. For generations, people learned that the planets orbiting the sun ended with the very small Pluto. Only half as wide as the United States, Pluto was always an area of interest to astronomers but it became a major topic of discussion within the public when, in August of 2006, Pluto was demoted from its status as the ninth planet in our solar system to a dwarf planet. To be classified as a full-sized planet, the celestial body must orbit the sun, have a round shape, and be gravitationally dominant. Pluto orbits the sun and is round, but Pluto shares an orbital space with bodies of a similar size, so the planet is not considered gravitationally dominant. Pluto isn’t the only dwarf planet in our solar system, Eris and Ceres are both dwarf planets currently recognized by the International Astronomical Union.

It is true that Uranus and Neptune are definitely distinctly more blue than Jupiter and Saturn. They appear to be so because both Uranus and Neptune have an atmosphere that contains Methane. The Methane in the atmosphere will absorb the light and the light reflected back is blue, hence giving the planets a more blue color. Meanwhile, Jupiter and Saturn are both made up of mainly Hydrogen and helium while Uranus and Neptune contain more water (H2O). Neptune and Uranus are also very cold, which I would propose explains that there is much more water on these planets because the water requires cooler temperatures to condense than Hydrogen and Helium. (space.com)

this makes the total temperature of uranus up to the temperature range of uranus is known to be 218⁰C - 577⁰C temp range. Sence our solar system is always at a constant motion it known that Uranus is known to have been 1.6 billion

Uranus is the next one in line. It’s unique in the fact that it has an axis of rotation that is almost 90 degrees on its side. Each season, due to its rather unusual tilt, is roughly 21 Earth years. Like Saturn it has rings that are around it, but to a much smaller scale. There are 9 rings. It has an outer atmosphere much like Jupiter and Saturn, but has only minute traces of