Uranus

** Uranus: Uranus is the seventh planet from the sun is one of the four gas giants of our solar system. Uranus is the furthest planet that can be seen with a naked eye, Uranus is approximately 2,872,460,000 kilometers from the sun and it takes light 2 hours and 40 minutes to travel to Uranus from the sun. Uranus is mainly made up of gas and liquid. It has a diameter of 51,118 kilometer. Its surface consists of blue-green clouds that are made up of tiny crystals of methane. Deeper into the atmosphere are probably more liquid gases and liquid oceans of dissolved ammonia. It takes Uranus 84 earth years to orbit the sun due to the fact that it orbits in an oval shape. Usually the orbit would be in a circle like orbit. The rotation of Uranus is very fast because it only takes 17 hours to fully rotate on its axis. But most of the atmosphere of Uranus rotates faster than its actual self. Winds in Uranus can reach speeds up to 720 kilometers per hour that makes the atmosphere rotate once every 14 hours. The axis of Uranus is really strange because its axis is almost tilted vertical. Scientist say that its axis is so tilted onto its side that it is inline with the orbital plane. Uranus has 21 known satellites. The five largest satellites were discovered between 1985 and 1986 while another voyager 2’s photographs discovered ten, yet earth-based telescopes discovered another six. Uranus has a very strong magnetic field that it is surrounded by. The magnetic field is so strong that it has strapped small particles, mostly protons and electrons. They have formed radiation belts around the planet like orbital rings. As the radiation belts travel back and forth friction causes them to emit radio waves so faint that earth cannot detect them. **

http://www.nasa.gov/worldbook/uranus_worldbook.html