Uranus

steemizen (69)in #education • 9 years ago (edited)

Hello Steemians!

Today I'm taking a closer look at Uranus, the seventh planet from the Sun.

Uranus is the only planet named after a Greek god, the god of sky Ouranos.

Aeon-Uranus and the Zodiac-Wheel, Greco-Roman mosaic C3rd A.D., Glyptothek Munich

Uranus was discovered by Wiliam Herschel in 1781, and was the first planet discovered in the modern times.

Wiliam Herschel

The diameter of Uranus is about 51,100 km and it has the mass of approximately 15 times the mass of Earth.

Uranus size

Unlike the gas giants, Jupiter and Saturn, Uranus is categorized as an ice giant, it has an atmosphere similar to the one of gas giants but has more water and other liquids.

It has a rocky core, believed to be made out of silicate, an icy mantle which is actually composed of a hot liquid mix of water and ammonia, and is sometimes called the water-ammonia ocean.

Uranus structure

The temperature on Uranus is about -200 °C making it one of the coldest planets in our Solar System.

Uranus as seen by Hubble

Like Saturn, Uranus also has planetary rings, but they are not so visible as the ones of Saturn.

Uranus has 27 moons, with it being the leas massive ones of the giant planets.
The five largest ones are Miranda, Ariel, Umbriel and Oberon and they got their names from the works of Shakespeare and Alexander Pope.