Uranus has a unique axial tilt of 98 degrees, causing its poles to face the sun for 42 years before flipping to face away for the next 42 years. It is an ice giant made up of icy materials like water, methane and ammonia. Uranus has rings and 27 moons, with its largest moons being Titania and Oberon. Its blue-green color is caused by methane in its atmosphere absorbing red light.

1. Down is Up on
Uranus
The Sideways Planet

2. Stats
• Sidereal year: 84 Earth Years
Orbits with equator at gravity:
90 degrees to 8.69 m/s2
its path around
the sun.
sidereal day:
-.718 days
(retrograde)
Mass: 8.68E25 kg,
Radius: 25,362 km

3. Size perspective

4. Core
inner core
silicate/
Iron-Nickel
rock
Mantle: water
ammonia,
methane ices
Rest is gaseous hydrogen, helium, methane

5. Upper Atmosphere
• Atmosphere: Hydrogen, Helium, small
amount of Methane
• Ice Giant: Known as the
• coldest planet
• Made of icy materials,
• water, methane and ammonia
Mass: 8.68E25 kg, Radius: 25,362 km

6. Inclination
• First: Remember that Uranus orbits
with its poles facing the sun and
opposite the sun. 98 degree tilt.
When the North Pole faces the sun then
for 42 years there is daylight and 42
years there is night.

7. Eccentricity
• e = .047
• Also: Uranus has a retrograde rotation.
• The best information:
http://www.newtonsapple.org.uk/uranus-
planet-of-diamonds/

8. • It is tipped 60 degrees with respect to
the axis of rotation
• It is so skewed that it winds up like a
corkscrew as Uranus rotates.
• This is known by radio
• bursts from Uranus every
• 17.24 hours. These apparently come
from locations in Uranus’s interior.
Magnetic Field

9. Rings
• Yes, Uranus has rings
Discovered by
Aussies when
they noticed
stars blinking. It
was the rings
interfering with
their view.
picture
from Voyager 2.
White marks
are dust particles

10. The Color is really Blue
• The atmosphere of Methane absorbs
the red wavelengths of light and
prevents it from bouncing back.
• All we can see is the blue-green photons
reflected into space.
• This is the coldest planet of all.

11. More Fun Facts
• Second least dense planet to Saturn
• Has rings that are visible with a
backyard telescope. They are dark and
only a few km wide.
• First planet discovered after the
invention of the telescope.
• Can see Uranus without a telescope.

12. Moons
• 27 Moons
• Largest is Titania, then Oberon,
Umbriel, Ariel, then Miranda

13. Titaniafeatures:
frost,
maybe
tectonics,
very gray
like most
Uranian
Moons.
Sidereal Year:
8.76 Earth days.

14. Miranda
This photo is a montage.
https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/profile.cfm?Object=Ura_Miranda
1.4 Earth days to
orbit
Smallest of
the top five and
closest to the
planet.

15. Other moons
• https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/pr
ofile.cfm?Object=Uranus&Display=Sats

16. Some websites for Uranus
• http://www.seasky.org/solar-
system/uranus.html