THE
ICE GIANTS
Uranus
By
Shabina Pal and Jessica Pal
Introduction
The planet we will be discussing is Uranus.
Uranus, along with Neptune, is known as the Ice Giant.
In this presentation:
We will give you information about the planet, such
as:
The mythology behind the planets’ name and its discovery
Planets’ Orbit
Their Rotation
Their Size
Composition and Temperatures
Surrounding of the Planets: moons and rings
The effects that the planets’ composition has on human bodies
More information about past, preset and any future scientific research about them
Uranus is the 7th
planet in the solar
system.
URANUS
The naming game
Uranus is named after the Greek God Ouranus, the lord of the
Heavens.
This name was chosen in addition as the logical addition to the
series: for Mars (Ares in Greek) was the son of Jupiter, Jupiter (Zeus
in Greek) the son of Saturn, and Saturn (Cronus in Greek) the son of
Uranus. What is anomalous is that, while the others take Roman
names, Uranus is a name derived from Greek in contrast to the
Roman Caelus.
Many names were proposed for the new planet, including
"Hypercronius" ("above Saturn"), "Minerva" (the Roman goddess of
wisdom), and "Herschel." To flatter King George III of England,
Herschel himself offered "Georgium Sidus" ("The Georgian Planet")
as a name, but that idea was unpopular outside of England.
German astronomer Johann Bode, who detailed Uranus' orbit,
gave the planet its ultimate name, URANUS.
The Lord of the
Heavens, URANUS
URANUS
The first discovered planet
Uranus is the first planet to be discovered by scientists using
a telescope.
Although Uranus is visible to the naked eye, just like the classical planets
— Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn — it was long mistaken as a
star because of the planet’s dimness and slow orbit.
British astronomer Sir William
Herschel discovered Uranus
accidentally on March 13, 1781, with
his telescope while surveying all stars
down to those about 10 times dimmer
than can be seen by the naked eye.
One "star" seemed different, and
within a year Uranus was shown to
follow a planetary orbit.
Sir William
Herschel
URANUS
Orbit
Uranus orbits the Sun on its side.
Uranus revolves around the
Sun once every 84 Earth years.
Its average distance from the
Sun is roughly 3 billion km
(about 20 AU).
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/c
ommons/7/76/Uranus_Orbit.gif
The inclination of the
planet to the Ecliptic
plane is of 0.772
556°, almost on the
same plane of the
Sun’s Ecliptic plane.
The Unusual Rotation of Uranus
The unusual tilted axis is said to be
caused by a single large impact on
the planet.
Another unusual fact about this
planet is that the moons also lie on
a 98 degrees plane. Theories state
that this is a consequence of
collisions with other objects in
space.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=
Zo_MkCNU4FM
http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive
/releases/1999/11/video/b/
S
I
Z
E
• The diameter of Uranus is 51,118 km
across.
• The planet is about 4 times bigger
than Earth and you could fit 63 Earths
inside Uranus, and still have some
room to spare.
• The mass of Uranus is about 14.5
times more massive than Earth’s
mass, but it is only 1/20 of Jupiter’s
mass.
Composition
It is believed that Uranus has
three different layers inside it:
the rocky core, which is in
the center
the icy mantle, which
surrounds it (largest layer)
made of hot, dense fluid
which is comprised of
ammonia, water. In fact,
most astronomers refer to
Uranus’ mantle as the
water-ammonia ocean
the outer gas layer made
up of helium and hydrogen
Atmosphere
Uranus' atmosphere is composed
mainly of hydrogen, 83% and minor
amounts of helium, 15 %.
Methane is present in minor
amounts, and probably forms
most of the clouds seen by space
probes and telescopes.
Uranus and Neptune both appear blue
because methane strongly absorbs
light of other wavelengths.
http://planetfacts.org/massand-density-of-uranus/
The Uninteresting Planet! - 1986
Not much was known about Uranus’
surface and atmosphere till January
1986, when Voyager 2 flow by the
planet. By the data collected the
planet seems to be inactive and
scientists found it really uninteresting
and boring at the time.
This was considered be caused by the
great distance from the sun, and
therefore the energy coming from the sun
was insufficient to heat up Uranus’
atmosphere.
Voyager 2 Look Back at Uranus :
Image from Voyager 2 in January
1986 showing the Uranian crescent.
The pale blue colour of the planet is
obvious.
Astronomers are still not convinced about
this, and debating between this being
usual, or extremely slow phases are going
on with the planet’s atmosphere.
New Studies 2003- 2005
In 2003 and 2004 the ground-based 10-metre
Keck II telescope in Hawaii took some pictures of
Uranus and something unexpected was
revealed:
the planet now showed clouds, spots and several
belts. This suggested that Uranus might be more
dynamic than once thought, and further studies
into these atmospheric outbursts or some
periodic behavior may be revealed in the years
to come.
The high tilt of the rotational axis might have
significant effects. The temperature along the
equator in 2005 was noted to be
-150°C.
TEMPERATURE RANGES
ON URANUS
Temperatures at the very edges of the atmosphere
are about −220°C (53K) warming slightly to −197°C
(76K)
Weather
Winds can blow up to around 200
meters/seconds in the upper atmosphere.
Uranus can be really really stormy. An equivalent
of 3 million square miles on Earth.
In other words, considered on Uranus, this kind
of storms are usual and common there, and are
barely detectable from Earth, but if the same
storm would be brought on our planet it would
destroy entire continents as USA in no time.
Seasons On Uranus
A day on Uranus is 17 hours, 14 minutes
and 24 seconds long.
Picture taken by the Hubble.
For part of the year on Uranus, the
Sun appears to be move throughout
the sky, just like we have on Earth. But
then, as the year goes on, one
hemisphere is in light, and the other is
in darkness for an entire season.
In other words, a day on Uranus is the
same as a season: either it is dark or it
is light.
So from this we can say that there are
only two seasons on Uranus.
Uranus has 27 confirmed natural satellites in its orbit.
Uranus has 5 major moons.
Uranus has 13 rings. They are named using Greek symbols
and other numerical values.
In order of increasing distance from the planet, they are
1986U2R, 6, 5, 4, Alpha, Beta, Eta, Gamma, Delta, Lambda,
Epsilon, Nu and Mu
M
O
O
N
S
+
R
I
N
G
S
The rings of Uranus were
first discovered in 1977
while scientists were looking
the sky and they saw that
when a star was occulted by
Uranus, and that there were
some dips in the brightness
of the star.
http://csep10.phys.utk.edu/astr16
1/lect/uranus/rings.html
Picture taken by the Voyager 2
The satellites of
Uranus orbit the
planet in the same
plane of the
equator of
Uranus.
MIRANDA, The Unique Moon of Uranus
Astronomers once believed that
Miranda had been shattered to
pieces and reassembled several
times throughout its long history.
But more recent theories suggest
that the upwelling of partially
melted ices may be responsible for
these curious surface features. The
real reason is still a mystery.
http://www.seasky.org/solar-system/uranusmiranda.html
URANUS IN THE SKY
Uranus Among the Constellations
Constellation. Year Year
Pisces 2009 — 2011
Cetus 2012
Piscis 2013 — 2017
Aries 2017 — 2023
Taurus 2024 — 2032
Gemini 2033 — 2039
Cancer 2039 — 2043
Leo 2044 — 2051
Virgo 2052 — 2061
Uranus is not visible at naked eye.
If you have an accurate telescope,
then you can easily identify Uranus
by the bluish/greenish color that it
has.
Uranus, imaged at high power on
August 28, 2007, with a 12.5-inch
reflector using the stacked-video
technique. Visually Uranus appears
much more white than blue-green.
S&T: Sean Walker
Best Times To Look For
Uranus
The best times to look
for Uranus throughout
the year are between
September through
November . During
this time the planet is
visible in the evening
sky.
It is possible to spot it
early in January, but
before dawn.
No set dates
for now for
Uranus
visibility for
2012.
http://www.nakedeyeplane
ts.com/uranus.htm
From January to May it
is impossible to spot
the planet because it is
close to the Sun.
Voyager 2
The first approach to Uranus was
done on January 24, 1986. Voyager
2 was sent by NASA
Voyager 2 was the first and only
probe that travelled from Earth to
Uranus and flew by it and sent back
data.
From what Voyager sent back,
scientists concluded that Uranus
is featureless, but it has a faint
haze over the North Pole.
http://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=r46QdcnAYeU
Future Explorations Plans For Uranus
British scientists proposed a plan to launch a satellite in that could shed
new light on the mysteries of the frozen planet.
They plan on sending a probe on a 15-year journey to the distant planet.
Scientist want to find the answers to the mysteries of Uranus:
- Why does it give off so little heat?
- Why is it tilted on its side, rolling about the solar system like a ball,
causing half of the planet to face away from the sun for 42 years at a
time?
It is an expensive project, but it is planned to be lanced in 2021
Further researches on Uranus would lead to scientific discoveries of a
planet that is so different from the other planets.
Hopefully we will hear more about the planets in about 24 years, if not
more. ( 9 years before probes will be sent, and 15 years before the probes
will reach the planets.)
HUMANS ON URANUS
If a human would ever land on Uranus, it
would be impossible to survive.
There is no Oxygen, therefore inability of
breathing.
Gravitational force on Uranus
is just a little bit higher then
Earth’s.
This means that gravity would
not crush a human boy on
Uranus, but the atmospheric
pressure might.
But all these are suppositions
made on the evidences we
have, because not a lot about
the surface of Uranus is known
up to date.
The atmosphere is so dense that a human
body is unable to stand, therefore the
pressure would crush the person down.
The planet is made of the so called “waterammonia ocean”, so there is no land for
human to stand on. Also the inner side of
the planet is extremely hot – Green house
effect ( extremely dense atmosphere)
Humans would freeze to death on the
planet.
A 100 pound person would be
weighting approximately 90 pounds
on Uranus.
Many of us may have thought that
we would weight a lot more or a lot
less on Uranus.
This is because the little difference
in the Gravitational field on Uranus
compared to Earth’s.
NOW FIND OUT HOW MUCH YOU
WOULD WEIGHT ON URANUS:
http://www.exploratorium.edu/ronh/weight/
Interesting Facts:
• Well, Uranus’ rotation. It rotates on the side, unlikely
other planets.
• Uranus has a really thick atmosphere, but it is still the
2nd least dense planet, after Saturn!
• Uranus is the 3rd largest planet in the solar system, and
the 4th massive planet.
• The rings of Uranus have dust layers around them.
• As said, not much is known specifically about the
surface of the planet, but hopefully more will be found
out in the future ( hopefully while WE are still alive!!!)
This is a link that summaries
the important things about
Uranus
http://science.nationalgeographi
c.com/science/space/solarsystem/uranus-article/
REFERENCES
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uranus
http://www.space.com/45-uranus-seventh-planet-in-earths-solar-system-was-firstdiscovered-planet.html
http://www.optcorp.com/edu/articleDetailEDU.aspx?aid=1450
http://news.discovery.com/space/home-run-neptune-completes-first-orbit-sincediscovery.html
http://planetfacts.org/orbit-and-rotation-of-uranus/
http://www.bobthealien.co.uk/uranten.htm
http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2011/10/-uranuss-weird-sidways-orbit.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rings_of_Uranus
http://www.seasky.org/solar-system/uranus-miranda.html
http://www.planetfacts.net/Uranus-Facts.html
http://nineplanets.org/uranus.html
http://planetfacts.org/planet-uranus-facts/
http://science.nationalgeographic.com/science/space/solar-system/uranus-article/
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/astronomy/planets/uranus/
http://www.solarviews.com/eng/uranus.htm