The planet Uranus
Uranus  as seen from Voyager 2
Uranus Facts:
Uranus's rings look white in pictures, but they are  really made of asphalt-colored material.
When it was first discovered, Uranus  was mistaken for a star. It was named "34 Tauri".
Uranus rotates on its side  like Pluto.
Uranus is the only planet to be named after a Greek god, not a  Roman one.
 
How  big is the planet?
Comparison  of the size of Uranus and the Earth
Uranus  is 51,118 km or about four Earths wide. It is the third widest and fourth heaviest  planet in the Solar System. [2]
What  is its surface like?
Uranus  has no surface that you could stand on without going deep into the atmosphere.  Under the atmosphere, there may be a uniform mixture of rock and ice. [3]
What  are its rings like?
Uranus  has eleven rings. These rings are made of large rocks up to 10 m wide! They are  dark in color and very hard to see. They were discovered by accident in 1977.  Scientists were studying a bright star near Uranus. However, the star's light  was blocked before and after it disappeared behind the planet. From this, they  figured out that the planet had a ring system. [4]
What  are its moons like?
Uranus's  rings and moons
Uranus  has 27 known moons, which places it third in the Solar System for number of moons!  The five main ones are Miranda, Ariel, Umbriel, Titania and Oberon. [5]
Miranda
Miranda  is the smallest and closest of Uranus's major moons. It is mainly made of ice  and rock. Miranda's surface has grooves, cliffs, and valleys. The moon was named  after a character in "The Tempest," a play by Shakespeare. [6]
Ariel
Ariel  is made of rock and ice. Ariel has many valleys, but not many craters. Ariel was  named after a spirit in "The Tempest" by Shakespeare. [7]
Umbriel
Umbriel  is made of lots of ices and some rock. It is also the darkest of Uranus's major  moons. Umbriel was named after a character in the poem "The Rape of the Lock"  by Alexander Pope. [8]
Titania
Titania  is the largest moon of Uranus. It is mostly ice and rock. The surface is covered  with canyons. It was named after the Queen of the Fairies in "A Midsummer's Night  Dream," a play by Shakespeare. [9]
Oberon
Oberon  is the outermost of the major moons of Uranus. It is made of the same things as  Titania. It has many craters. Some of them have white rays around them and dark  crater floors. It was named after the King of the Fairies in "A Midsummer's Night  Dream". [10]
Other  moons
There are  13 tiny moons known to be orbiting Uranus inside Miranda's orbit. Nine  more tiny moons are known to be in big orbits beyond Oberon's orbit. [11]
How  long is a day on Uranus?
One  day on Uranus is about 17 Earth hours long. Uranus spins on its side, maybe because  of a big impact early in the history of the Solar System. [12]
How  long is a year on Uranus?
One  year on Uranus would be 30,708 days or 84 years on Earth. [13]
What  is it made of?
Unlike  Jupiter and Saturn, Uranus is thought to be made mostly of rock and ices. The  gases in its atmosphere are mostly hydrogen and helium. Other gases  found in smaller amounts are ammonia, water, and methane. [14] Uranus' blue color comes from methane clouds,  which absorb red light and reflect blue light. [15]
How  much would Uranus's gravity pull on me?
If  you were floating close to the cloud tops of Uranus, you would be pulled down  with a force about nine tenths as strong as Earth's gravity. [16]
Who  is it named after?
Uranus  was named after Ouranos, the Greek name for the sky. According to Greek mythology,  Ouranos was the husband and son of Gaia, Mother Earth. [17]
References