Uranus
The ice giant lying on its side
Summary
Uranus is the seventh planet from the Sun, an ice giant. Its most unusual feature: its spin axis is tilted by almost 98°, so the planet turns as if lying on its side relative to its orbit. As a result, its poles get 42 years of daylight followed by 42 years of night.
In depth
Uranus, discovered by William Herschel in 1781, was the first planet found in modern times, the first addition to the set of planets known since antiquity. Its atmosphere is 83% hydrogen, 15% helium and 2% methane. Because methane absorbs red light, Uranus is blue-green. What is really interesting is its interior: unlike Jupiter and Saturn, it is mostly a mixture of water, ammonia and methane "ices" (hence the name "ice giant"), not compressed metallic hydrogen. The 98° tilt of its spin axis was probably caused by a large collision in the early Solar System. A year on Uranus lasts 84 Earth years; because it lies on its side, at the poles the Sun does not set for 42 years and then does not rise for the next 42. Irregularities in its orbit led to the discovery of Neptune (1846). It has been visited only once: by Voyager 2, in 1986.
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