Uranus has a radius of 25.362 km / 15.759 mi and a diameter of 51.118 km or 31.763 mi. Uranus is slightly larger than Neptune, however, it is smaller in mass. Methane gas absorbs the red factors in light, leaving the blue-green shade. It is mostly made of flowing icy materials above a solid core. The other set has some that are a reddish color and another that is blue. It is the third-largest planet in the Solar System and the biggest of the ice giants. The size of Uranus is around four times wider than our Earth. Recent discoveries have shown that Uranus has dynamic cloud activity near the equinox that include fast-changing bright features. Uranus is an ice giant (instead of a gas giant). Scientists like to call this planet an “ice giant.” That’s because it has the … It has thirteen ring systems and 23 confirmed moons. The biggest moons of Uranus, all of them, have surface areas smaller than the continent of Australia. Uranus is the first planet discovered in modern history. The thick atmosphere is made of hydrogen and helium like Jupiter and Saturn. Uranus has been visited only once by a spacecraft, namely, Voyager 2. There has been only one spacecraft that visited near Uranus. Uranus is 20 times further away from the Sun than Earth. The original name proposed for Uranus was Georgian Sidus – which means Georgian Planet, in honor of King George II, however, the scientific community didn’t agree. Uranus has the coldest temperatures of all of the planets, hitting as low as -224 degrees C. Uranus has a tilted axis and it’s thought that a collision with another large celestial object was the cause of it. It’s the second least dense planet in the solar system, with Saturn being the least dense of all of the planets. Uranus rotates in the opposite direction than most planets, from East to West. Many believe that this was caused by a collision with an Earth-sized planet. Around 80% of the mass of Uranus is made up of dense, hot fluid of “icy” materials including water, methane, and ammonia. Uranus Has A Lot Of Ice. Interesting facts about Uranus This was the first planet to be discovered using a telescope. The clouds on Uranus are difficult to see ,but they are present. In 1986 the Voyager 2 spacecraft did a flyby to get more details on the rings and then in 2005 the Hubble Telescope located two more rings. Temperatures and pressures are too extreme on Uranus for us to consider that life could exist there. All other planets, with the exception of Uranus, have a rotation axis that is almost perpendicular to the orbital plane. Even with binoculars, it would be easy to spot the planet. Because of this, Uranus and Neptune are classified as ice giants rather than gas giants, for easier distinction. The moons of Uranus are named after characters created by William Shakespeare and Alexander Pope. Uranus is the only planet that spins on its side. 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