URANUS

MASS: 14.5 times
DIAMETER: 31,763 miles
ROTATION: 17 hours, 54 minutes
ORBIT AROUND SUN: 84 Earth years

The most prominent thing about Uranus, the seventh planet from the Sun, is how it spins on its axis. It moves along like a barrel rolling on its side. This may be due to a collision with a planet-sized body early in the planet's history, which changed Uranus' rotation. Also Uranus' magnetic field is rather unusual. The magnetic axis is tilted 60 degrees from the planet's axis of rotation and offset from the center of the planet by 1/3 of the planet's radius.Summers on Uranus stay in perpetual sunlight while the winters are in perpetual darkness, each season lasts 21 years. This is due to its unusual axis tilt and how long it takes to orbit the sun. Since Uranus is so far away from the sun there isn't much of a difference in temperature during the different seasons, its average temperature is -350 degrees F.Uranus is the third largest planet and it is classified as a gas planet, because it has no solid surface. It may have a small core but the rest of the planet mostly consists of water, ammonia, and methane. The atmosphere contains hydrogen (83%), helium (15%), and methane (2%). The methane gas gives Uranus its blue colour.Like Jupiter and Saturn, Uranus has 11 rings. They run along the planet's equator, which is perpendicular to its orbit around the Sun. The 10 outer rings are dark, thin, and narrow. The 11th ring is inside the other ten and is broad and diffuse. The rings surrounding Uranus are very different from those surrounding Saturn and Jupiter. The rings are made of a fine dust the is spread evenly throughout the ring, unlike Jupiter's and Saturn's rings which consist of more chunky matter.Like Saturn, Uranus has many moons. 18 moons have been confirmed but three more have been spotted, recently. The strangest moon is Miranda. The high cliffs and winding valleys of the moon may indicate partial melting of the interior, with the icy material occasionally drifting to the surface.