The seventh planet from the Sun with the third largest diameter in our solar system, Uranus is very cold and windy. The ice giant is surrounded by 13 faint rings and 27 small moons as it rotates at a nearly 90-degree angle from the plane of its orbit.

Uranus is an ice giant. Most of its mass is a hot, dense fluid of "icy" materials – water, methane and ammonia – above a small rocky core.

Jan 9, 2025 · Uranus is the seventh planet from the Sun, and the third largest planet in our solar system. It appears to spin sideways.

NASA’s real-time science encyclopedia of deep space exploration. Our scientists and far-ranging robots explore the wild frontiers of our solar system.

Jan 9, 2025 · NASA’s real-time science encyclopedia of deep space exploration. Our scientists and far-ranging robots explore the wild frontiers of our solar system.

All of Uranus's inner moons (those observed by Voyager 2) appear to be roughly half water ice and half rock. The composition of the moons outside the orbit of Oberon remains unknown, but they are likely captured asteroids.

May 31, 2022 · Neptune and Uranus have much in common — they have similar masses, sizes, and atmospheric compositions — yet their appearances are notably different. At visible wavelengths Neptune has a distinctly bluer color whereas Uranus is a pale shade of cyan.

Dec 14, 2012 · Voyager 2 is the only spacecraft to have visited Uranus and Neptune. At closest approach, the spacecraft came within 50,600 miles (81,500 km) of Uranus's cloud tops. The thousands of images and reams of scientific data Voyager 2 sent back revealed a complex system of rings, moons, and an unusual magnetosphere.

Erin Lewis is a science and history educator at the Air Zoo, an aerospace and science center located in Portage, MI. As a Secondary Education History and Earth/Space Science teacher in Grand Rapids, she intertwined rocketry, astronomy, …

Jan 29, 2001 · The first unmanned space probe flyby in history of the planet Uranus by Voyager 2 on January 24, 1986 should have been an exciting one in the history of planetary exploration.