Uranus

Uranus
Uranus pictured as a featurless disk
Designations
Semi-major axis	2,875,040,000 km (19.218 AU)
Orbital period	84 years 7 days 11 hours (30,688 days 12 hours)
Physical characteristics
Diameter	50,724 km
Mass	'"`UNIQ--postMath-00000001-QINU`"' kg
Rotation period	17 hours 42 minutes 24 seconds
Composition	H2, Helium, CH4, HD, H2S, NH3
Surface temperature	- 226 °C to -197 °C (average ladder)
Position
Superior system	Solar System
Equivalent system	Icy Gas Giant
Inferior system	27 Moons

Uranus, discovered by William Herschel in 1781, is the 7th planet in our Solar System, the third gas / largest planet. Like all gas planets, the copious amounts of gas causes wind speeds of hundreds of km/h, but the winds are softer than those of the other gas giant planets.

It is the only planet in the Solar System that rotates on its side, meaning its axis is less than 45 degrees to horizontal. It rotates vertically at 98 degrees, one of the biggest tilts in our Galaxy, the Milky Way.

Composition

Uranus, just like Jupiter and Saturn , is primarily made out of hydrogen and helium, the difference being that a considerable minority (2.3%) is made out of methane, which is much more than the rest of the atmosphere that isn't hydrogen or helium on Jupiter, Saturn or even Neptune.

The upper most clouds are made out of ammonia and hydrogen clouds, the middle clouds are made out of ammonium hydrosulfide and the lowest clouds are made out of water vapor. This exact same composition can be found on every gas planet in our Solar System.

Deep into the atmosphere of Uranus, the extreme pressures may break apart the methane molecules into carbon, which rain down as diamonds.

Beyond that comes the mantle, which is a liquid mess of water, ammonia and methane ices. The core is rocky and small, made out of iron and nickel, unlike the 3 other gas planets.

Moons

Titania

Uranus has 27 moons, but almost none that are mainstream-popular, like Triton, Europa, Io or Ganymede.

The moons are named after characters in Shakespeare's plays, some are from old English literature, with an exception for Margaret.

The moons, especially the largest, are very dark, smaller and lighter than our Moon and are primarily out of rock and ice. The largest and most "popular" moons are Titania, Oberon, Umbriel, Ariel and Miranda.

Rings

Uranus' rings, thin and dark

Uranus has rings, however, they are thin and dark. Unlike Saturn, which as long, thick, visible rings, Uranus appears to have lines. This, however, can be changed if one views it in forward-scattered light.

Uranus has 13 rings: 1986UR, 6, 5, 4, $\alpha, \beta, \eta, \gamma, \delta, \lambda, \epsilon, \nu$ and $\mu$. They reach out from a couple thousand km to as far as around 90,000 km. Nowhere near Saturn distances, but we can't really compare something like Uranus' rings to the magnificence of Saturn.

Uranus's rings are composed of macroscopic particles and dust. In fact, there are multiple dust bands in between various rings, as well as 1986UR and $\zeta$ being known as dusty rings.

References

Uranus was discovered in March 13 1781 by William Herschel with the use of a telescope and was the first planet found with a telescope.

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Herschel
2. https://youtu.be/rXc405l-J4Q