Kid facts about Uranus: Interesting facts about planets

Kid facts about Uranus: Uranus is the 7^th planet from the Sun. When it is being visible to the naked eye, it wasn’t recognized as a planet due to its low brightness and slow orbit. Planet Uranus is first planet in solar system which has been discovered with the use of telescope. The planet Uranus has axial tilt of 98 degrees. It is often described as “rolling around the Sun on its side”.

Planet Uranus

 

Uranus Planet Profile

Equatorial Diameter:	51,118 km
Polar Diameter:	49,946 km
Mass:	8.68 × 10^25 kg (15 Earths)
Moons:	27 (Miranda, Titania, Ariel, Umbriel & Oberon)
Rings:	13
Orbit Distance:	2,870,658,186 km (19.19 AU)
Orbit Period:	30,687 days (84.0 years)
Effective Temperature:	-216 °C
Discovery Date:	March 13th 1781
Discovered By:	William Herschel

Important Kid facts about Uranus

1.       Uranus was officially discovered by Sir William Herschel in 1781: Planet Uranus is too dim to have been seen by the ancients. At first Herschel thought that it was a comer, after several years it was confirmed that its a planet. For Uranus the name was recommended by astronomer Johann Bode. This name derived from the ancient Greek deity Ouranos.

2.       Uranus rotates on its axis once every 17 hours, 14 minutes: The planet Uranus rotates in a backward direction, which is opposite to way of Earth and most other planets turn.

3.       One rotation around the sun every 84 Earth years: Few parts of Uranus like its orbit one or the other poles point directly at the Sun and get about 42 years of direct sunlight. The remaining of the period they are in darkness.

4.       Planet Uranus referred to as an “ice giant” planet:  As it is mentioned in Kid facts about Jupiter Like other gas giants planets  even the Uranus has a hydrogen upper layer, which consists of mixed helium in. Below to that there is an icy mantle, which surrounds a ice core and rock. The upper layer is made up of water, methane ice crystals and ammonia that gives a planet pale blue color.

5.       Uranus has two sets of very thin dark colored rings: There are 11 inner rings and 2 outer rings, probably formed when one or more Uranus’s moons are moons are broken. The 1^st rings were discovered in 1977 with the 2 outer rings being discovered in Hubble Space Telescope images between 2003 and 2005.

6.       Uranus consists of 27 moons: Like all other large planets even planet Uranus has its share of moons. Presently, astronomers have confirmed that there are 27 moons. But these moons are small and irregular.

7.       Uranus can’t support life: In Uranus planet the life is not supported because the oxygen on Uranus is very cold and plant’s cannot be grown. According to the article “kid facts about the Uranus”, humans can’t live in Uranus because of the presence of different gases that are cold like helium, methane and hydrogen.

8.       How much would you weigh on Uranus? It takes many years to fly a rocket to Uranus. You would weigh very less on Uranus because its gravity power is not strong as Earth’ gravity.