Uranus is the coldest planet in the solar system, although not the most distant from the sun. This giant was discovered back in the 18th century. Who discovered it, and what are some of Uranus’s marines? What is so special about this planet? Description of the planet Uranus read below in the article.
Features
This is the seventh remotest planet from the Sun. It is the third in diameter, it is 50 724 km. It is interesting that the diameter of Uranus is 1840 km greater than that of Neptune, but the mass of Uranus is smaller, which puts it in fourth place among the heavyweights of the solar system.
The coldest planet is visible with the naked eye, but a telescope with a hundredfold increase will allow you to see it better. Uranus’s mariners are much harder to consider. There are 27 of them, but they are significantly removed from the planet and much dimmer than it.
Uranus is one of the four gas giants, and together with Neptune it forms a separate group of ice giants. According to scientists, gas giants arose much earlier than the planets that are part of the earth group.
Discovery of Uranus
Due to the fact that it can be seen in the sky without optical instruments, Uranus is often mistaken for a dim star. Before determining that it was a planet, it was observed in the sky 21 times. The first to be noticed was John Flemsid in 1690, indicating as star number 34 in the constellation Taurus.
The discoverer of Uranus is William Herschel. On March 13, 1781, he observed stars from a man-made telescope, suggesting that Uranus is a comet or a foggy star. In his letters, he repeatedly indicated that on March 13 he saw precisely a comet.
The news of the newly noticed celestial body quickly scattered in the scientific community. Someone said that this is a comet, although some scientists have doubts. In 1783, William Herschel declared that it was still a planet.
They decided to name the new planet in honor of the Greek god Uranus. All other planet names are taken from Roman mythology, and only the name of Uranus is from Greek.
Composition and characteristics
Uranus is 14.5 times larger than Earth. The coldest planet in the solar system does not have the usual hard surface. It is assumed that it consists of a solid stone core, covered with a shell of ice. And the upper layer is the atmosphere.
The icy shell of Uranus is not hard. It consists of water, methane and ammonia and makes up about 60% of the planet. Due to the absence of a solid layer, difficulties arise in determining the atmosphere of Uranus. Therefore, the atmosphere is considered the outer gas layer.
This planet's shell has a bluish-green color due to the methane content, which absorbs red rays. Its on Uranus is only 2%. The remaining gases that make up the atmospheric composition are helium (15%) and hydrogen (83%).
Like Saturn, the coldest planet has rings. They formed relatively recently. There is an assumption that once they were a satellite of Uranus, which decayed into many small particles. In total there are 13 rings, the outer ring has a blue light, it is followed by red, and the rest are gray.
Orbit movement
The coldest planet in the solar system is 2.8 billion kilometers away from Earth. The equator of Uranus is inclined towards its orbit, therefore the planet rotates almost "lying" - horizontally. As if a huge gas-ice ball was rolling around our luminary.
The planet revolves around the Sun in 84 years, and its daylight hours last about 17 hours. Day and night are replaced quickly only in a narrow equatorial band. In the remaining parts of the planet 42 years lasts a day, and then the same night.
With such a long change of time, it was assumed that the temperature difference should be quite serious. However, the warmest place on Uranus is the equator, not the poles (even illuminated by the Sun).
Climate of Uranus
As already mentioned, Uranus is the coldest planet, although Neptune and Pluto are located much further from the Sun. Its lowest temperature reaches -224 degrees in the middle layer of the atmosphere.
Researchers have noticed that Uranus is characterized by seasonal changes. In 2006, the formation of an atmospheric vortex on Uranus was noted and photographed. Scientists are just beginning to study the change of seasons on the planet.
It is known that on Uranus there are clouds and wind. With approaching the poles, the wind speed decreases. The highest wind speed on the planet was about 240 m / s. In 2004, from March to May, a sharp change in weather conditions was recorded: the wind speed increased, thunderstorms began, and clouds appeared much more often.
There are such seasons on the planet: the southern summer solstice, the northern spring, the equinox and the northern summer solstice.
Magnetosphere and planet exploration
The only spacecraft that managed to reach Uranus is Voyager 2. It was launched by NASA in 1977 specifically for the study of the distant planets of our solar system.
Voyager 2 managed to discover new, previously invisible rings of Uranus, to study its structure, as well as weather conditions. Until now, many of the known facts about this planet are based on data obtained from this device.
Voyager 2 also discovered that the coldest planet has a magnetosphere. It was noted that the magnetic field of the planet does not come from its geometric center. It is tilted at 59 degrees from the axis of rotation.
Such data indicate that the magnetic field of Uranus is asymmetric, in contrast to the earth. There is an assumption that this is a feature of ice planets, since the second ice giant - Neptune - also has an asymmetric magnetic field.