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| Planet Uranus |
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| One of the signs of Uranus |
Uranus Facts
Basics:
- Uranus has two signs
- 7th planet from the Sun
- One of the four Gas Giants
- Discovered in 1781 - William Herschel
- Named after the Greek God of the Heavens (1850)
- Tilted planet - 98 degree axis tilt (rolls on its side)
- Blue-green in color - due to methane in atmosphere
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| Revolution of Uranus around Sun |
Numbers:
- Rotation = -17.24 Earth hours
- Retrograde = rotates clockwise (backwards from most things in Universe!)
- Revolution = 85 Earth years
- Rolls like a barrel around the Sun due to axis tilt
- Orbit = 2,870,990,000 km (~19 AU)
- Diameter = 51,118 km - 3rd largest planet
- Mass = 8.683e25 kg
- e = exponent (times 10 to the 25th power)
- Density = 1,270 kg per meters cubed
- Less gravity than Earth!
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| 2nd Sign of Uranus |
- Composed of rock & various ices (Hydrogen, Helium & Methane)
- Does not have a rocky core - WEIRD!
- Interior is Methane Ice
- Atmosphere = 83% H; 15% He, 2% = Methane
- Methane reflects blue-green color!
- Goes through seasons
- Winds "stripe" the planet
- Methane "smog" on pole not facing Sun
- Has HUGE wind storms when poles switch!
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| Rings & Moons of Uranus |
Rings:
- Has 13 rings made of dark, rocky material
- Pieces can be up to 10 km in diameter
- 1st rings discovered after Saturn
- very faint - called a ring "arc"
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| Some of Uranus' Moons |
- 27 Moons
- Named after Shakespeare and Alexander Pope characters
- "Icy Moons" - no atmosphere & no magnetosphere
- Miranda, Oberon, Puck, Juliet, Titania, etc.
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| Pathway of Voyager 2 |
- Voyager 2 - Fly-by, January 24th, 1986 - the only one!!!!!
- Still going and reporting back to NASA!
- Future - JUNO Spacecraft - visiting Jupiter, Uranus & Neptune
- Launches August 2011
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| Uranus - 7th Planet from Sun |
Interesting Facts:
- One - First named Georgium Sidus for the King of England!
- Two - Moon Miranda has the largest canyon in the solar system - would take 12 minutes for us to fall at a rate of 200 kmph!
- Three - Larger in diameter, but smaller in mass than Neptune!
- Four - Magnetic field not centered on planet!
- Five - 1st planet to be discovered with a telescope & math!
- Six - Poles face Sun, but receive less solar radiation from the Sun than the equator!
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| Uranus without Rings |
Cool Links:
- Moodle
- My Uranus Notes
- Cool Basic Uranus YouTube Link
- Uranus Basics
- Animation of Voyager 2 Fly-By (NASA)
- Uranus - The Magician by Gustav Holst
Hi Ms. D,
ReplyDeleteAs expected, you have a great post! :) I like your pictures (with captions), your links, and the important things you put in. There are very few things you could improve, but I think that you should not put all the links at the end of the post - some should be in the text of the post, and you could have embedded the YouTube video. You could have explained more about why it is weird that Uranus doesn't have a rocky core. Your voice could have been a bit more exciting as well. Other than that, I'm happy to be able to comment to a teacher's scribe post for once! :)