Welcome to our Solar / Planetary Walk which has been established in memorial to Alfred Piff, a longtime member of MBG and supporter of education for all. As you travel along the walk, you will experience the scale model of our solar neighborhood. Our walk is approximately .79 miles, and each planet is marked by Planetary Art Posts created by Nancy Thomas. Scanning the QR at each post will give access to information about each planet. Enjoy your walk!
Planet URANUS
Uranus is a bluish ice giant like its twin, Neptune. In mythology, Ouranos (Heaven) and Gaea (Earth) were the parents of Saturn (Chronus), who in turn was the father of Jupiter and grandfather of Mars. This system is tilted about ninety degrees to our line of sight and lies on its side as it revolves around the Sun. As a result, each of its poles experiences a day that lasts 42 years. Uranus has a thick atmosphere of hydrogen, helium, methane and ammonia. It has thin dark rings and at least 20 moons, which are named for characters in British literature. It is the only planet with a year (84 years) about the same as a human lifetime. Uranus’s surface gravity is .90 g’s.
DIAMETER: 31,764 miles
DISTANCE FROM SUN: 19.2 AU = 1.8 billion miles = 2.7 light hours
ROTATION: 17.9 hours
REVOLUTION AROUND ORBIT: 84 years
MOONS: at least 20 moons
NAMED FOR: Ouranus, grandfather of Jupiter
Some Fun Facts - Did you know?
Uranus with its rings and four of its largest moons. Scientists have now identified 11 known rings. Some of the larger rings are surrounded by belts of fine dust.
When the Voyager probes passed Uranus, they sent back closeups of the rings and five of the largest moons. NASA/Hubble/ESA
As Uranus moves through its orbit, we see the angle of its rings shift. NASA/Hubble ACS/HRC WFPC2
