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Uranus

Also known as Sol VII, Georgium Sidus, Sol h, the Georgian Planet, Georgian Planet, the, 34 Tauri, Planet Uranus, Sol 7

Uranus is the seventh planet from the Sun. It is a gaseous cyan-coloured ice giant. Most of the planet is made of water, ammonia, and methane in a supercritical phase of matter, which astronomy calls "ice" or volatiles. The planet's atmosphere has a complex layered cloud structure and has the lowest minimum temperature () of all the Solar System's planets. It has a marked axial tilt of 82.23° with a retrograde rotation period of 17 hours and 14 minutes. This means that in an 84-Earth-year orbital period around the Sun, its poles get around 42 years of continuous sunlight, followed by 42 years

AI overview

Uranus is the seventh planet from the Sun and a gaseous ice giant with a cyan color, composed mainly of water, ammonia, and methane in a supercritical state, making it one of the coldest planets in our Solar System. It matters as a scientific subject because its extreme axial tilt of 82.23° and unusual rotation create distinctive seasonal patterns unlike any other planet, providing insights into planetary formation and the diversity of worlds in our Solar System.

AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.

Key facts

Planet.name: Uranus
Planet.symbol: 24px|⛢|class=skin-invert, 24px|♅|class=skin-invert
Planet.image: Uranus Voyager2 color calibrated.png
Planet.caption: Uranus in true colour, as captured by Voyager 2 on January 24, 1986. Its pale, muted appearance is due to a shroud of haze above its clouds.
Planet.background: LightBlue
Planet.discoverer: [[]]
Planet.epoch: J2000
Planet.time_periastron: 17–19 August 2050
Planet.synodic_period: 369.66 days
Planet.avg_speed: 6.80 km/s
Planet.satellites: 29
Planet.equatorial_radius: 4.007 Earths
Planet.polar_radius: 3.929 Earths
Planet.surface_area: 15.91 Earths
Planet.volume: 63.086 Earths
Planet.mass: 14.536 Earths GM=
Planet.moment_of_inertia_factor: (estimate)
Planet.escape_velocity: 21.3 km/s

via Wikipedia infobox

Research

287 papers

Multiple Probe Measurements at Uranus Motivated by Spatial Variability.ReviewSpace science reviews · 2024Wong MH, Rowe-Gurney N, Markham S et al.DOI: 10.1007/s11214-024-01050-9
Plasma Environment, Radiation, Structure, and Evolution of the Uranian System (PERSEUS): A Dedicated Orbiter Mission Concept to Study Space Physics at Uranus.ReviewSpace science reviews · 2023Cohen IJ, Smith EJ, Clark GB et al.DOI: 10.1007/s11214-023-01013-6
We've misunderstood Uranus all these years.Nature · 2025DOI: 10.1038/d41586-025-01074-3
Uranus should be NASA's top target, report finds.Science (New York, N.Y.) · 2022Voosen PDOI: 10.1126/science.abq6108
Photochemical Haze Formation on Titan and Uranus: A Comparative Review.ReviewInternational journal of molecular sciences · 2025Dubois DDOI: 10.3390/ijms26157531
The upper atmospheres of Uranus and Neptune.Philosophical transactions. Series A, Mathematical, physical, and engineering sciences · 2020Melin HDOI: 10.1098/rsta.2019.0478
Auroral emissions from Uranus and Neptune.Philosophical transactions. Series A, Mathematical, physical, and engineering sciences · 2020Lamy LDOI: 10.1098/rsta.2019.0481
Neptune and Uranus: ice or rock giants?Philosophical transactions. Series A, Mathematical, physical, and engineering sciences · 2020Teanby NA, Irwin PGJ, Moses JI et al.DOI: 10.1098/rsta.2019.0489

via PubMed

Wikidata facts

Demonym: Uranian
Area: 8115600000
Distance from Earth: 3150000000
Diameter: 51118
Radius: 24973
Mass: 86810
Orbital period: 30688.5
Image: Uranus Voyager2 color calibrated.png

Show 28 more facts

Commons category: Uranus (planet)
time of discovery or invention: 1781-03-13
orbital eccentricity: 0.04725744
flattening: 0.0229
Commons gallery: Uranus
semi-major axis of an orbit: 19.18916464
orbital inclination: 1.02
argument of periapsis: 170.95427630
longitude of ascending node: 74.01692503
synodic period: 369.66
magnetic moment: 3899999999999999773507584
apoapsis: 3006318143
periapsis: 2734998229
catalog code: 34 Tau
surface gravity: 8.7
density: 1.271
mean anomaly: 142.238
volume as quantity: 68330000000000
right ascension: 257.311
declination: -15.175
apparent magnitude: 5.32
angular diameter: 4.1
temperature: 57
albedo: 0.300
Unicode character: ♅
Stack Exchange tag: astronomy.stackexchange.com/tags/uranus
IPA transcription: ˈuːʁanʊs
rotation period: 17

Sources (14)

via Wikidata · CC0

~53 min read

Article

26 sections

Contents

History
{{anchor|34 Tauri}} Discovery
Name
Formation
Orbit and rotation
Axial tilt
Visibility from Earth
Internal structure
Internal heat
Atmosphere
Composition
Troposphere
Upper atmosphere
Climate
Banded structure, winds and clouds
Seasonal variation
Magnetosphere
Moons
Rings
Exploration
In culture
See also
Notes
References
Further reading
External links

Uranus has the third-largest diameter and fourth-largest mass among the Solar System's planets. Based on current models, inside its volatile mantle layer is a rocky core, and a thick hydrogen and helium atmosphere surrounds it. Trace amounts of hydrocarbons (thought to be produced via hydrolysis) and carbon monoxide along with carbon dioxide (thought to have originated from comets) have been detected in the upper atmosphere. There are many unexplained climate phenomena in Uranus's atmosphere, such as its peak wind speed of , variations in its polar cap, and its erratic cloud formation. The planet also has very low internal heat compared to other giant planets, the cause of which remains unclear.