Uranus
Uranus was identified as a planet by William Herschel in 1781. It is the third giant planet outward from the Sun, roughly half Saturn's diameter and close to Neptune in size and mass.
Its small greenish disk is bright enough to sit near the limit of naked-eye visibility. That is why Uranus appeared on star charts before its planetary nature was recognized; John Flamsteed recorded it as a star in Taurus. Even in larger amateur telescopes, Uranus usually shows little more than a tiny disk without obvious belts or storms.
- Physical Data
- Uranus
- Mass ratio Sun/planet
- 22'962
- Mass of planet
- 86.625000 1024 kg
- Equator radius
- 25559 km
- Rotation period
- -0.71833 days
- Flattening
- 0.022927
- Density
- 1.3 kg/dm3
- Visual magnitude at 1 AU
- -7.19 mag
- Albedo
- 0.51
- Northpole RA
- 10h43.4m
- Northpole DE
- -15.09°
- Orbit Data
- Uranus
- Revolution period
- 84 years 8 days
- Sun radiation power
- 3.4 to 4.1 W/m2
- Distance from Sun (min)
- 2735 Mio km
- Distance from Sun (max)
- 3005 Mio km
- Distance from Earth (min)
- 2590 Mio km
- Distance from Earth (max)
- 3160 Mio km
- Orbital Elements*
- Uranus
- Inclination
- 0.77271°
- Longitude of node
- 74.0466°
- Longitude of perihel
- 174.63°
- Semi-major axis
- 19.24855 AU
- Daily motion
- 0.01167123°/day
- Eccentricity
- 0.0469442
*) Epoche 8 January 1994, 0h UT, Equ. J2000