How Does Uranus Work?

third biggest planet in the Sun's orbit. Scientists have coined an appropriate term for the large chili bodies like Urinus ice giants. Neptune falls into the same category, but Uranus is quite an odd duck compared to its neighboring planet. For starters, Urinus spins on an extreme tilt, resulting in some truly wild seasons around the polls. Even the ice giants name is a bit peculiar, and not just because it makes school kids chuckle. Okay, let's not kid ourselves.

You're never too old to enjoy a good Urinus joke. Headline writers certainly don't think so. If article titles like NASA wants to probe Uranus in search of gas and Uranus smells like farts are any indication these jokes. If you're not getting them hinge on the spelling of Uranus, you are a n u s allowing for an English speaking mispronunciation as your anus meaning rectum that we're classy puns. Aside, Uranus represents a break with nomenclatural tradition. Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn,

and Neptune all took their names from Roman gods or deities. However, Uranus uniquely was named after a Greek god. In the religion of ancient Greece, Uranus was revered as the primordial god of the sky. He had a son named Chronos and a perhaps more famous grandson known as Zeus. Those two figures were later conflated with two Roman deities, Saturn and Jupiter. Though the planet Irness was discovered by astronomer William Herschel on March thirteenth one, he didn't give it

the name we used today. A loyal Britain Herschel wanted to call this far away world Georgium Sidus or George's Star, in honor of King George the Third, but by nature that name was politically charged to avoid alienating non British stargazers. German astronomer Johann Elert Buddha suggested calling the planet Uranus in three. Eventually his alternative moniker went out. But back

to that axial tilt. Of planets rotate around an axis, which is the imaginary line connecting their northern and southern poles, and they simultaneously orbit on an imaginary plane around the Sun. Now, Earth has an axial tilt of twenty three point five degrees. This means there's a twenty three point five degree angle between Earth's axis and its plane of orbit around the Sun. Without the tilt, our home world wouldn't have seasons or possibly life. Urnus is skewed too, but to a much

greater extent. In relation to its orbital plane. The ice giants axis has been tilted at a jaw dropping nine point seven degree angle. Next to Saturn and Neptune, Uranus looks like it's lying on its side, So what's up with the weird orientation? A computer simulation published in ten suggests Uranus was hit by a huge protoplanet around four billion years ago, and then again, there may have been multiple impacts or a long gone circumplanetary disc could have

played a role. However, it happened. The tilt subjects both poles to long dark winters and long bright summers. On Uranus, one orbit around the Sun or one year, lasts for roughly eighty four Earth years. Each pole is aimed almost directly at the Sun for about twenty one straight Earth years during its summer season. Meanwhile, the other pole faces the opposite direction, enduring a long dark winter. Despite the extreme tilt, Uranus is warmer at the equator than it

is at either pole. Nobody knows I and this isn't the planet's only mystery. Jupiter, Saturn, and Neptune all radiate more than twice as much heat as they receive from the Sun, yet Uranus's heat output is significantly lower. This disparity has long baffled planetary scientists. As we already mentioned, Uranus and Neptune are both ice giants. Planets of this sort have rocky cores covered by mantles rich in an

icy half frozen slush of ammonia, methane, and water. Next up, there's the atmosphere, whose outer level is full of hydrogen, helium, and even more methane. Researchers have found that Uranus's atmospheric clouds contain hydrogen sulfide, a compound responsible for the rotten eggs stench we all know and hate. So yes. Uranus literally stinks to boot. The densest part of its atmosphere sees brutal temperatures of negative two hundred forty three to

negative three hundred and seventy degrees fahrenheit. That's a negative one fifty three to negative to eight degrees celsius. That's hardly a welcoming environment for any future astronauts, but at least the color scheme would be familiar. Earth isn't the only blue planet in the Solar System. Methane absorbs red light, giving Uranus and Neptune deep blue complexions. Of the two worlds, Irness looks slightly greener. Since nineteen seventy seven, we've known

that Irness has a ring system around its equator. To date, astronomers have counted thirteen rings encircling the planet. The structures are relatively dim and lack the fine particles observed in other ring systems like Saturns. Each one is composed of debris chunks that are gulf ball sized at minimum. For some reason, smaller material gets exiled into space between these rings.

Ranness also has twenty seven known moons, twenty five of which were named after shakespeare characters like Ophelia, Juliette, Desdemona, Puck, and Miranda, whose namesake appears in The Tempest. Geologically complex Miran contains the single policed cliff known to humankind, dubbed

Verona Rupez. It has an estimated height of twelve point four miles that's twenty kilometers, meaning that if you happened to be walking along its peak and you happened to fall off, you would plummet for twelve minutes straight before hitting the ground. Other satellites of note include Cicaras and Caliban. While most of Urness's moons spin in the same direction as the planet does, these two revolve the other way. Scientists think they were once independent objects that the ice

giants gravity ensnared by the way. Caliban is another Tempest character, and Cicarax was said to be his mother. From its weird rings to its puzzling climate, Urness has found plenty of ways to surprise us. Only time will tell what further mysteries the planet holds until then. Although it's very dim, Urnus is visible to the naked eye on some dark, clear nights, if you have sharp vision, if not so much,

It's easily visible with binoculars or a telescope. Today's episode was written by Mark Mancini and produced by Tyler clang Or. More on this and lots of other topics. Besit hows Stuff works dot com. Brain Stuff is production of our Heart Radio. More podcasts in my heart Radio, visit the heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.