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Diameter/km Mass/kg mean density kg/m Volume/km^3 Surface gravity Escape velocity Axial rotation period/h Axial inclination Distance from Sun eccentricity of orbit Orbital period/days |
51118 86.83e+24 1.27e+3 82713e+10 8.69 21.3km/s 17.24 97.77³ 2872.5e+6 0.046 30685.4 |
Uranus contains proportionally more water, methane and ammonia than Jupiter and Saturn but contains a lot less hydrogen and helium. It is a gas giant that has 14 times the mass of Earth and yet it is only 4 times larger than the Earth. It appears green due to its high content of methane. Uranus doesn't look interesting as it has no cloud features and just looks like a green ball with skimpy rings, but the position of these dark and rocky rings give a clue to its history. Uranus orbits in a plane at right angles to its axis which must have happened when it was sideswiped by a large body while it was forming. This has caused the Sun which appears just like a bright star from Uranus, to appear overhead at the poles as well as at the equator making Uranus have the most extreme seasons in the solar system.
Uranus has over 200 moons but it is very unlikely that humans will live on any of the moons and definitely not on Uranus itself.