Ah, Uranus. Probably the most weird planet everyone has seen. Do you know why it's weird? It's tipped over!! Uranus is a bluish-green planet that was once hit. The impact of that hit tipped the whole planet over!
The planet Uranus is the seventh planet from the Sun and is the second to last planet (not including dwarf planets) in the solar system. I always think of Uranus as "my favorite colored planet" because the color is my favorite color. Uranus is made mostly of a chemical called methane. Methane is what gives the planet its color. Here is a diagram that shows what Uranus is made of:
I explained to you that most of the time, the bigger the planet, the bigger the amount of mass. The bigger the amount of mass, the more gravity there is. BUT, Uranus's gravity is not as strong as Earth's. This is because Uranus doesn't have a lot of mass. In other words, Uranus isn't very dense. So, if you weigh 70 pounds on Earth, you would weigh 62 pounds on Uranus. Did you know that ALL the gas planets have rings? All the gas planets, except Saturn, have very small rings and very few rings. Since Uranus is a tipped planet, the rings are also tipped. The rings are, instead of going sideways, they are going up and down. Here is another cool fact: Uranus also rotates in a weird way, not like the other planets. Instead of spinning right and left, sort of like those rotors on the fan, it rolls up and down like a bowling ball. Here is a picture of the rotation of Uranus compared to the rotation of normal planets:
Even though Uranus is a bit weird, it is important to have in our solar system.
Uranus, the weird planet.
Uranus with rings.
Stay tuned for Neptune, the planet of blue, coming out on Saturday, June 5, 2014 on
www.anishspace.blogspot.com.