One of the more well-known facts about Uranus is that its name has been the source of humour for some time. Childish jokes aside, the planet is rather interesting.
Read on for some facts about the planet, and hopefully learn a thing or two beyond the (sometimes amusing) joke reels.
1 Uranus is the first planet to be discovered with a telescope
William Herschel originally thought that Uranus was a comet, but it was later discovered to be a planet with the aid of a telescope – making it the first planet to be discovered in modern history.
Did you know this fact about Uranus?
British astronomer William Herschel discovered Uranus in 1781 and originally wanted to name it “Georgian Sidus” after King George III. The name Uranus was settled on though after the wider scientific world decided they did not like William’s suggestion and was instead named after the ancient Greek god, Ouranos
2 Uranus has 27 moons
Uranus places third in the race with the planet with the most moons behind Saturn’s 82 and Jupiter’s 79 natural satellites (or, you know, moons).
Did you know?
The moons of Uranus were named after characters created by William Shakespeare and Alexander Pope, and they are:
<click or tap> The full list of the Moons… <click or tap>
Oberon
Titania
Miranda
Trinculo
Puck
Cordelia
Setebos
Desdemona
Ophelia
Portia
Sycorax
Cressida
Cupid
Belinda
Caliban
Rosalind
Stephano
Juliet
Mab
Perdita
Prospero
Ferdinand
3 Uranus has 13 rings, that we are aware of
The planet Uranus has 13 rings that we are currently aware of. It is thought that these rings could be the remains of moons that shattered in high-speed collisions with other objects like asteroids or comets.
The total number of known rings of Uranus currently sits at 13, with the largest being the called Epsilon.
Did you know?
We have only known about the rings around Uranus since 1977. That means it has taken nearly 200 years to find them. There are two reasons why it took so long to discover that Uranus had rings:
- The distance from Earth
- Low reflection of light
4 Uranus is the only planet named after a Greek god
Among the interesting facts about Uranus is that it is the only planet to be named after a Greek god. It is thought that German astronomer Johann Bode, the man responsible for the naming of Uranus, did not like how the Latin name Caelus (father of Saturn) sounded. It is said that he preferred how Uranus (also the father of Saturn, according to Greek mythology) sounded.
Did you know?
All of other the planets are named after Roman gods
5 Only one spacecraft has flown by Uranus
To date, Voyager 2 is the only spacecraft to have flown by Uranus. This happened in 1986 and it went by the planet at a distance of 50,641.7 miles (81,500km). The spacecraft sent back to Earth the first close-up photographs of the ice giant, its rings and moons.
Did you know?
Voyager 2 was launched on 20 August 1977. The space probe was originally designed to last five years. However, Voyager 2 is still exploring space and transmitting signals back to Earth.
6 It takes Uranus 84 Earth days to orbit the sun
Uranus has an average orbital speed of 4.225 mi/s (6.8km/s). It also spins on its axis every 17 hours, 14 minutes and 24 seconds. This means there are 42,718 Uranian solar days to a year.
Did you know?
A year on Uranus would take approximately 84 years on Earth
7 Uranus is the furthest planet visible to the naked eye
More facts about Uranus: Did you know that you can see Uranus with the naked eye? The brightness of Uranus is just within the limits that the human eye can see unaided.
However, you would need to be in a spot with no light pollution, the sky would have to be clear, and you would need to know exactly where to look. People a long time before William Herschel would have seen the planet, but they wouldn’t have known what they were looking at.
Did you know?
The earliest known observation of Uranus that may have been made was in 128 BC. This is when Hipparchos may have recorded it in his star catalogue, using a different name.
In 1960 John Flamsteed observed the planet at least 6 times, cataloguing it as 34 Tauri.
Between 1750 and 1769, Pierre Charles Le Monnier observed it at least 12 times.
8 Uranus is nicknamed the “Ice Giant”
Often called the Iice Giant, Uranus has an icy mantle surrounding its iron and rock core. The planet’s upper atmosphere is ammonia, water and methane ice crystals. It is these that give the planet its pale blue colour.
Did you know?
Facts about Uranus could be complete without the following. The planet Uranus, used to be known as a gas giant. But because we now know what it is made of, this classification was changed in the 1990s to ‘Ice Giant’; a much more accurate description of the planet.
9 Uranus gets roughly 42 years of daylight followed by 42 years of nighttime
The planet’s axis sits at 98 degrees. This means that it is tilted sideways as it goes around the Sun. It also means that its north and south poles are closer to where the equator is on Earth. During some parts of its orbit, one of the two poles directly faces the Sun. This means the planet gets roughly 42 years of daylight, followed by 42 years of nighttime.
Did you know?
Earth’s axis is tilted at 23.4 degrees. This is why days are longer in the summer and shorter in the winter as we orbit the sun. In April 2021 scientists discovered climate change has resulted in the axis shifting approximately 13 feet.
10 Uranus is a really long way from the sun
Uranus is the farthest known planet from the sun. Historically Pluto was the furthest planet from the sun however, this was reclassified as a dwarf planet in 2006.
Did you know?
For the final instalment in our facts about Uranus: The planet orbits the Sun at an average distance of around 1.8 billion miles (2.9 billion kilometres). For comparison, the Earth orbits approximately 93.2 million miles (150 million kilometres) from the Sun. The difference between the two is huge, with Uranus approximately 19 times further from the Sun than Earth.
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