Uranus, colder planet in the Solar System
Uranus is the coldest planet in the solar system, although it is not the furthest from the sun. This giant was discovered in the 18th century. Who discovered it and who are the followers of Uranus? What is special this planet? Description of the planet Uranus, see below in the article
This is the seventh largest planet in the sun. It is the third in diameter, it has 50.724 km. Interestingly, Uranus diameter is 1.840 km larger than Neptune’s, but Uranus mass is lower, which places it in fourth place among the heavyweights of the solar system.
The coldest planet is visible to the naked eye, but a telescope with an increase of 100 times makes it easier to see. Uranus followers think much more. There are 27 in total, but they are considerably away from the planet and are much weaker than him.
Uranus is one of the four gaseous giants and, together with Neptune, forms a separate group of ice giants. According to scientists, gaseous giants formed long before the planets belonging to the Terrestrial Group.
Uranus discovery
Since Uranus can be seen in the sky without optical aids, it is often confused with a faint star. Before you discover that this is a planet, it was observed in heaven 21 times. The first to notice was John Flemsid in 1690, who is written as a star in number 34 of the Taurus constellation.
It is considered that Uranus discoverer is William Herschel. On March 13, 1781, he was observing the stars with a man -made telescope and hinted that Uranus is a comet or a nebulous star. In his letters, he repeatedly pointed out that he saw a comet on March 13.
The news of a new light blue body dissipated rapidly in scientific circles. Someone said it was a comet, although some scientists had doubts. In 1783, William Herschel declared that, after all, it was a planet.
The new planet decided to give a name to the Greek God Uranus. All other names of the planets come from Roman mythology, and only the name of Uranus comes from the Greek.
Composition and properties
Uranium is more than 14, 5 times. For us, the coldest planet in the solar system does not have the usual solid surface. It is believed that it is composed of a solid stone core covered with an ice layer. And the upper layer is the atmosphere.
Uranus’s ice bowl is not solid. It consists of water, methane and ammonia and constitutes approximately 60% of the planet. Due to the lack of a solid layer, difficulties in determining the atmosphere of Uranus arise. Therefore, the atmosphere is considered the outer gas layer.
This planet layer is bluish green due to the methane content that absorbs red rays. It is only 2% in Uranus. The remaining gases contained in the atmospheric composition are helium (15%) and hydrogen (83%).
Like Saturn, the coldest planet has rings. They were recently established. It is believed that it was once an Uranus satellite that broke into many small particles. A total of 13 rings, the outer ring has a blue light, followed by red and the rest is gray.
Movement in orbit
The coldest planet in the solar system is 2.800 million kilometers from Earth. Uranus Ecuador is inclined to its orbit, therefore, the rotation of the planet is almost ‘horizontal’. As if a giant giant ball was rolling around our star.
The planet revolves around the sun for 84 years and its day of light lasts about 17 hours. The day and night are quickly replaced only in a narrow strip of Ecuador. In the rest of the earth, one day lasts 42 years and then the same night.
With such a long change at day, it was assumed that the temperature difference should be quite severe. However, Uranus’s warmer place is Ecuador and not the poles (even those illuminated by the sun).
Uranus climate
As mentioned above, Uranus is the coldest planet, although Neptune and Pluto are much further from the sun. Its lowest temperature reaches -224 degrees in the middle layer of the atmosphere.
Researchers have discovered that seasonal changes are typical of Uranus. In 2006, the formation of an atmospheric vortex in Uranus was detected and photographed. Scientists are just beginning to study station changes on the planet.
It is known that there are clouds and wind in Uranus. As the poles approach, wind speed decreases. The highest wind speed on Earth was about 240 m / s. In 2004, from March to May, there was an abrupt change in climatic conditions: wind speed increased, storms began and clouds appeared much more frequently.
There are stations of this type on the planet: the South Summer Solstice, the North Spring, the Equinox and the Summer Solstice of the North.
Magnetosphere and planet exploration
The only spacecraft that could get to Uranus is Voyazher-2. It was launched in 1977 by NASA specifically to study the distant planets of our solar system.
‘Voyazher-2’ was able to detect new previously invisible Uranus rings to study its structure and weather conditions. Until now, many of the known facts on this planet are based on data obtained from this device.
Voyazher-2 also discovered that the coldest planet has a magnetosphere. It was found that the planet’s magnetic field does not come from its geometric center. 59 degrees is inclined with respect to the rotation axis.
These data show that Uranus’s magnetic field is asymmetric, unlike Earth. It is believed that this is a characteristic of ice planets, since the second ice giant, Neptune, also has an asymmetric magnetic field.
Leave feedback