Uranus

Properties:

Mass: 8.6810 * 10^25 kg

Equatorial Radius: 25,362 km

Semi-major Axis: 19.2185 AU

Orbital Period: 84.0205 years

Rotational Period: 17 hr 14 min 23 sec

Surface Gravity: 8.69 m/(s^2)

Etymology: Uranus(Greek God of the sky)

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Uranus is the seventh planet from the Sun and has a primarily similar atmospheric composition(mainly hydrogen and helium) to Jupiter and Saturn, the two gas giants. However, it also contains ices, like water, ammonia, and hydrocarbons like methane in its interior. Because of this distinction, both Saturn and Neptune are often more aptly classified as "ice giants". While these two planets are primarily composed of gaseous material, they do contain significant traces of ices, like water, ammonia, and hydrocarbons. For reference, in the context of planets, ices and gases are terms for volatile substances(substances that easily vaporize, or transition from liquid phase to gas phase). Ices are volatiles that have a boiling point at or above 373 K(boiling point of water) while gases are volatiles that have a boiling point below 373 K. For better reference of boiling points, see the Chemistry section pertaining to it.

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Saturn has the coldest atmosphere out of all the planets in our Solar System, with a minimum temperature of 49 K(-224 C). The atmosphere is believed to hold many layers of clouds, with water-heavy clouds near the bottom and methane-heavy clouds near the top. The winds near the Uranian surface are extremely fast, clocking at speeds near 240 m/s. One aspect to note about Uranus's atmosphere is that what we define as the "atmosphere" of Uranus is just the portion of Uranus that we could remotely sense through Voyager 2 when it passed by Uranus.

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Uranus does have notable rings made up of very dark particles. The rings are extremely thin only ranging a few kilometers wide. These rings are young relative to Uranus given their dynamics and observations by scientists.

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The axial tilt of Uranus's orbit is 97.7 degrees. This means that the planet is almost orbiting exactly into the plane of its own rotation, meaning its north and south poles are where other planets would have their equators and vice versa. This also gives rise to unforeseen weather on Uranus because then each pole of the planet receives continuous sunlight for half a Uranus year(84 Earth years) each. This means that the North pole receives sunlight for 42 years while the South pole receives it for another 42 years. However, during equinoxes, there is a slight day-night cycle that can be somewhat observed in which Uranus acts like other planets. However, equinoxes are only at certain times in the planet's orbit so the majority of the orbit is as mentioned prior.