Outer Planets

Uranus
Uranus is the seventh giant planet from the sun and the third largest planet in the solar system. Its atmosphere consists of 84% hydrogen, 14% helium, and 2% methane. Methane makes the planet appear a bluish green in color. Its surface is made of liquid hydrogen and helium. Next to the surface is a layer of highly compressed water and its core is made up of rocks.

Uranus is approximately 51,118 km in diameter and about 2,871 million km away from the sun. Uranus takes about 17 hours and 14 minutes to rotate on its axis. This is almost 6 hours less than the Earth’s period of rotation. In addition, Uranus takes about 30,667.3 days or 84.02 Earth years to go around the sun.

Uranus has 13 rings that are made up of dark dust particles and rocks. Uranus spins on its side. Its rings rotate up and over the planet, instead of horizontally around the middle like the rings of Saturn. Uranus also spins on the opposite direction similar to Venus.

Uranus has 27 moons and some of them are named Miranda, Ariel, and Titania. The planet has faint rings, with the inner rings narrower and darker compared with the brightly colored outer rings.