The Planets- Uranus 2

Uranus' magnetic field is unusual in that the magnetic axis is tilted 60 degrees from the planet's axis of rotation and is offset from the center of the planet by one-third of the planet's radius.

Uranus is so far from the Sun that, even though tipped on its side and experiencing seasons that last over twenty years, the temperature differences on the summer and winter sides of the planet do not differ that greatly. Near the cloud tops, the temperature of Uranus is near -215 °C.


Uranus' rings were first discovered in 1977. The rings are in the planet's equatorial plane, perpendicular to its orbit about the Sun. The 10 outer rings are dark, thin, and narrow, while the 11th ring is inside the other ten and is broad and diffuse. The rings of Uranus are very different from those surrounding Jupiter and Saturn. When viewed with the Sun behind the rings, fine dust can be seen scattered throughout all of the rings.

Uranus is named for an ancient Greek sky god. It has 27 known moons, named mostly for characters from the works of Shakespeare and Alexander Pope. Miranda is the strangest Uranian moon. The high cliffs and winding valleys of the moon may indicate partial melting of the interior, with icy material occasionally drifting to the surface.



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