52 Interesting Facts About Uranus

Last updated on November 2nd, 2019

27. Titania is the largest moon of Uranus. It is about 1/3rd the size of Earth’s moon.

28. The brightest of the Uranus’ moon is Ariel while the darkest is Umbriel.

29. The name of other moons of Uranus are: Trinculo, Puck, Cordelia, Setebos, Desdemona, Ophelia, Portia, Sycorax, Bianca, Cressida, Cupid, Belinda, Caliban, Rosalind, Stephano, Juliet, Mab, Perdita, Prospero, Ferdinand, Francisco and Margaret.

30. Wondering who suggested the names of these moons? Interestingly, the names of all the 27 moons of Uranus are taken up from the work of Shakespeare and Alexander Pope.

31. There has been only one spacecraft to have visited the planet – the Voyager 2 on January 24, 1986. It’s to be hoped there will be a lot more!

32. Uranus and Neptune are classified as “ice giants” because of their different composition than that of Jupiter and Saturn, which mostly contain gas.

33. Uranus orbits the Sun every 84 Earth years.

34. While Uranus orbits around the Sun in 84 Earth years, the planet experiences 42 years of summer (sunlight) time and 4 years of winter (darkness) time.

35. The planet rotates at an average distance of approximately 2.9 billion km from the Sun. And the Earth is at a distance of 149,600,000 kilometers from the Sun. Neptune has the longest orbit of any known planet – 4.5 billion km from the Sun.

36. The intensity of sunlight on Uranus is 1/400 the intensity of sunlight on Earth.

37. Uranus is 14.5 times the mass of the Earth.

38. 1 astronomical unit, or 1 au, is the average distance from the Sun to the Earth. And Uranus is at a distance of 19.19 AU from the Sun (1 AU in KM = 149,598,000 kilometers.)

39. Uranus is the seventh planet from the Sun. Saturn is sixth and Neptune is eighth.

40. In 1789, Martin Heinrich Klaproth, the discoverer of Uranium, named the element after Uranus. 

41. What amazes is the fact that Uranus does not generate any heat which is more than what it receives from the Sun. Neptune, however, which is almost similar in size of Uranus, emits 2.6 times the heat it receives from the Sun. Now, there are different theories that explain the inability of Uranus to emit the heat from its core.

42. Sunlight takes almost 2 hours and 40 minutes to reach Uranus, which is 20 times the time it takes to reach the Earth.

43. Uranus has 13 rings, and all of them are very faint. The size of the bodies in the rings vary between 0.2 and 20 m in diameter. Saturn, on the other hand, has 12 rings that are the most extensive ring system of any planet of the solar system.

44. Uranus rotates on its side, it spins horizontally. 

45. Uranus revolves in its orbit at a speed of 6.6 km/sec while Mercury is the fastest planet in this regard at 47.87 km/sec.

46. There is a difference in the density of Uranus and that of the Earth. So if you were weighed on Uranus, you would weigh only 0.89% of your actual weight on Earth. 

47. One day on Uranus spans 17 hours and 54 minutes. 

48. Earth’s axis is at a tilt of 23.5 degrees while Uranus’ axis is at a tilt of 98 degrees. 

49. Uranus is also dubbed as the most boring planet in the solar system because of its quiet nature and lack of interesting data that can be gathered with telescopes.

50. Uranus is associated with the day “Wednesday.”

51. It is also the ruling sign of Zodiac “Aquarius.” 

52. Modern astrologers consider Uranus as the primary native ruler of the eleventh house. The planet is thought to be associated with mental disorders, sympathetic nervous system, breakdowns and hysteria, spasms, and cramps.

Uranus – quick facts