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The Planet Uranus

The Planet Uranus

The Magician

The seventh planet from the Sun is the third largest by appearance but is actually smaller in mass then Neptune. Uranus, which you must be careful in your pronoucning of. is the ancient Greek supreme god, the god of Heaven. He was the son of Gaia, but then mated with her to have a son Saturn. Also all teh Cyclpes were his as were tje Titans the predessors of the Olympian gods.

 

                           orbit:    2,870,990,000 km (19.218 AU) from Sun
                           diameter: 51,118 km (equatorial)
                           mass:     8.683e25 kg

Uranus, the first planet discovered in modern times, was discovered by William Herschel while systematically searching the sky with his telescope on March 13, 1781. It had actually been seen many times before but ignored as simply another star. Uranus has been visited by only one spacecraft, Voyager 2 on Jan 24 1986. The below is a direct quote for Nine Planet web site.


			 Most of the planets spin on an axis nearly perpendicular to the 	   
                        plane of the ecliptic but Uranus' axis is almost parallel to the ecliptic. 
                         At the time of Voyager 2's passage, Uranus' south pole was pointed 
                        almost directly at the Sun. This results in the odd fact that Uranus' 
                        polar regions receive more energy input from the Sun than do its 
                         equatorial regions. Uranus is nevertheless hotter at its equator than 
                        at its poles. The mechanism underlying this is unknown. 

There is an ongoing battle over which of Uranus poles is its north pole!

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last modified: June 13, 2009 © 2009 by Virgil Lee Fuqua III