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How to draw the planets of the solar system. Photo of the planet Uranus Uranus - surrounded by its largest moons

> Photos of Uranus

Enjoy real photo of the planet Uranus in high resolution, obtained by telescopes and devices from space against the backdrop of the neighboring planets Pluto and Saturn.

Do you think that space can't shock you anymore? Then take a closer look at the quality high resolution photo of Uranus. This planet is surprising in that it is the only one located at an extreme axial tilt. In fact, it lies on its side and rolls around the star. This is a representative of an interesting subspecies - ice giants. Pictures of Uranus will show a soft blue surface where the season stretches for as long as 42 years! There is also a ring system and a lunar family. Don't pass by photos of the planet Uranus from space and learn a lot about the solar system.

High resolution photos of Uranus

Rings of Uranus and two moons

On January 21, 1986, Voyager 2 was located at a distance of 4.1 million km from Uranus and photographed two shepherd satellites associated with the rings. We are talking about 1986U7 and 1986U8, located on either side of the epsilon ring. The frame with a resolution of 36 km was specially processed to improve the visibility of narrow formations. The epsilon ring is surrounded by a dark halo. Inside it are the delta, gamma and eta rings, and then beta and alpha. They have been monitored since 1977, but this is the first direct observation of 9 rings with a width of 100 km. The discovery of two satellites allowed us to better understand the ring structure and fit them into the “shepherd” theory. In diameter they cover 20-30 km. JPL is responsible for the Voyager 2 project.

Crescent planet

On January 25, 1986, Voyager 2 captured this photo of Uranus as it traveled toward Neptune. But even on the illuminated edge, the planet managed to preserve its pale green color. The color is formed due to the presence of methane in the atmospheric layer that absorbs red wavelengths.

Uranus in true and false colors

On January 7, 1986, Voyager 2 captured a photograph of the planet Uranus in true color (left) and false color (right). It was located at a distance of 9.1 million km several days before its closest approach. The frame on the left was specially processed to adjust it to human vision. This is a composite image produced using blue, green and orange filters. There are darker shades visible at the top right that show a daytime streak. Behind it lies the hidden northern hemisphere. The blue-green haze is formed due to the absorption of red color by methane vapor. On the right, false color emphasizes contrast to indicate detail in the polar region. UV, violet and orange filters were used for the image. The dark polar cap, around which lighter stripes are concentrated, catches the eye. Perhaps there is brown smog there. The bright orange line is an artifact of frame enhancement.

Uranus as seen by Voyager 2

Uranus as seen by the Keck Telescope

Hubble captures diversity of colors on Uranus

On August 8, 1998, the Hubble Space Telescope captured this photo of Uranus, where it recorded 4 main rings and 10 satellites. For this purpose, an infrared camera and a multipurpose spectrometer were used. Not long ago, the telescope spotted about 20 clouds. Wide Planetary Chamber 2 was created by scientists at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The Goddard Space Flight Center is responsible for its operation.

Hubble detects auroras on Uranus

This is a composite photo of the surface of the planet Uranus captured by Voyager 2 and the Hubble telescope - for the ring and aurora. In the 1980s we received amazing close-up images of the outer planets from the Voyager 2 mission. Since then, we have been able to look at auroras in alien worlds for the first time. This phenomenon is formed by streams of charged particles (electrons) coming from the solar wind, the planetary ionosphere and lunar volcanoes. They find themselves in powerful magnetic fields and move into the upper atmospheric layer. There they come into contact with oxygen or nitrogen, which leads to light bursts. We already have a lot of information about the auroras on Jupiter and Saturn, but the events on Uranus still remain mysterious. In 2011, the Hubble telescope became the first to obtain images from such a distance. The next attempts were carried out in 2012 and 2014. Scientists have studied interplanetary shake-ups created by two strong bursts of solar wind. It turned out that Hubble was watching the most powerful light. Moreover, for the first time they noticed that the aurora rotates along with the planet. Long-lost magnetic poles, which have not been seen since 1986, were also noted.

Characteristics of the planet:

Distance from the Sun: 2,896.6 million km
Planet diameter: 51,118 km*
Day on the planet: 17h 12min**
Year on the planet: 84.01 years***
t° on the surface: -210°C
Atmosphere: 83% hydrogen; 15% helium; 2% methane
Satellites: 17

* diameter along the planet's equator
**period of rotation around its own axis (in Earth days)
***period of orbit around the Sun (in Earth days)

The development of optics in modern times led to the fact that on March 13, 1781, the boundaries of the solar system were expanded with the discovery of the planet Uranus, the discovery was made by William Herschel.

Presentation: planet Uranus

This is the seventh planet in the solar system, it has 27 satellites and 13 rings.

Internal structure

The internal structure of Uranus can only be determined indirectly. The mass of the planet, equal to 14.5 Earth masses, was determined by scientists after studying the gravitational influence of the planet on the satellites. There is an assumption that in the center of Uranus there is a rocky core, which mainly consists of silicon oxides. Its diameter should be 1.5 times greater than the diameter of the earth's core. Then there should be a shell of ice and stones, and after that an ocean of liquid hydrogen. According to another point of view, Uranus does not have a core at all, and the entire planet is a huge ball of ice and liquid, surrounded by a blanket of gas.

Atmosphere and surface

The atmosphere of Uranus is mainly composed of hydrogen, methane and water. This is practically the entire basic composition of the planet’s interior. The density of Uranus is higher than that of Jupiter or Saturn; on average it is 1.58 g/cm3. This suggests that Uranus consists partly of helium or has a core consisting of heavy elements. Methane and hydrocarbons are present in the atmosphere of Uranus. Its clouds are composed of solid ice and ammonia.

Satellites of the planet Saturn

The planet, like the other two large giants Jupiter and Saturn, has its own ring system. They were discovered not so long ago in 1977, completely by accident during a routine observation of an eclipse under Uranus of one of the shining stars. The fact is that the rings of Uranus have an extremely weak ability to reflect light, so no one had any idea about their presence until that time. Subsequently, the Voyager 2 spacecraft confirmed the presence of a ring system around Uranus.

The planet's satellite was discovered much earlier, back in 1787, by the same astronomer William Herschel, who discovered the planet itself. The first two satellites discovered were Titania and Oberon. They are the largest satellites of the planet and consist mainly of gray ice. In 1851, British astronomer William Lassell discovered two more satellites - Ariel and Umbriel. , and almost 100 years later in 1948, astronomer Gerald Kuiper found the fifth moon of Uranus, Miranda. Later, the Voyager 2 interplanetary probe will discover 13 more satellites of the planet; several more satellites were recently discovered, so currently 27 satellites of Uranus are already known.

In 1977, an unusual ring system was discovered on Uranus. Their main difference from Saturn's is that they consist of extremely dark particles. The rings can only be detected when the light from the stars behind them is greatly dimmed.

Uranus has 4 large satellites: Titania, Oberon, Ariel, Umbriel, perhaps they have a crust, core and mantle. The size of the planetary system is also unusual; it is very small. The farthest satellite, Oberon, orbits 226,000 km from the planet, while the closest satellite, Miranda, orbits just 130,000 km away.

It is the only planet in the solar system whose axis is inclined to its orbit by more than 90 degrees. Accordingly, it turns out that the planet seems to be “lying on its side.” It is believed that this happened as a result of a collision between a giant and a huge asteroid, which led to a shift in the poles. Summer at the south pole lasts for 42 Earth years, during which time the sun never leaves the sky, but in winter, on the contrary, impenetrable darkness reigns for 42 years.

It is the coldest planet in the solar system, with the lowest recorded temperature being -224°C. Constant winds blow on Uranus, the speed of which ranges from 140 to 580 km/h.

Exploring the planet

The only spacecraft that reached Uranus was Voyager 2. The data received from it was simply amazing; it turns out that the planet has 4 magnetic poles, 2 main and 2 minor. Temperature measurements were also made at different poles of the planet, which also confused scientists. The temperature on the planet is constant and varies by about 3-4 degrees. Scientists cannot yet explain the reason, but it is believed that this is due to the saturation of the atmosphere with water vapor. Then the movement of air masses in the atmosphere is similar to terrestrial sea currents.

The mysteries of the solar system have not yet been revealed, and Uranus is one of its most mysterious representatives. The mass of information received from Voyager 2 only slightly lifted the veil of secrecy, but on the other hand, these discoveries led to even greater mysteries and questions.

Uranus is the seventh planet in the solar system and the third gas giant. The planet is the third largest and fourth largest in mass, and received its name in honor of the father of the Roman god Saturn.

Exactly Uranus has the honor of being the first planet discovered in modern history. However, in reality, his initial discovery of it as a planet did not actually happen. In 1781, the astronomer William Herschel while observing stars in the constellation Gemini, he noticed a certain disk-shaped object, which he initially recorded as a comet, which he reported to the Royal Scientific Society of England. However, later Herschel himself was puzzled by the fact that the object’s orbit turned out to be practically circular, and not elliptical, as is the case with comets. It was only when this observation was confirmed by other astronomers that Herschel came to the conclusion that he had actually discovered a planet, not a comet, and the discovery was finally widely accepted.

After confirming the data that the discovered object was a planet, Herschel received the extraordinary privilege of giving it his name. Without hesitation, the astronomer chose the name of King George III of England and named the planet Georgium Sidus, which translated means “George’s Star.” However, the name never received scientific recognition and scientists, for the most part, came to the conclusion that it is better to adhere to a certain tradition in naming the planets of the solar system, namely to name them in honor of the ancient Roman gods. This is how Uranus got its modern name.

Currently, the only planetary mission that has managed to collect information about Uranus is Voyager 2.

This meeting, which took place in 1986, allowed scientists to obtain a fairly large amount of data about the planet and make many discoveries. The spacecraft transmitted thousands of photographs of Uranus, its moons and rings. Although many photographs of the planet showed little more than the blue-green color that could be seen from ground-based telescopes, other images showed the presence of ten previously unknown moons and two new rings. No new missions to Uranus are planned for the near future.

Due to the dark blue color of Uranus, it turned out to be much more difficult to create an atmospheric model of the planet than models of the same or even . Fortunately, images from the Hubble Space Telescope have provided a broader picture. More modern telescope imaging technologies have made it possible to obtain much more detailed images than those of Voyager 2. Thus, thanks to Hubble photographs, it was possible to find out that there are latitudinal bands on Uranus, like on other gas giants. In addition, wind speeds on the planet can reach more than 576 km/hour.

It is believed that the reason for the appearance of a monotonous atmosphere is the composition of its uppermost layer. The visible layers of clouds are composed primarily of methane, which absorbs these observed wavelengths corresponding to the color red. Thus, the reflected waves are represented as blue and green colors.

Beneath this outer layer of methane, the atmosphere consists of approximately 83% hydrogen (H2) and 15% helium, with some methane and acetylene present. This composition is similar to other gas giants in the Solar System. However, Uranus's atmosphere is dramatically different in another way. While Jupiter and Saturn have mostly gaseous atmospheres, Uranus' atmosphere contains much more ice. Evidence of this is the extremely low temperatures on the surface. Considering the fact that the temperature of the atmosphere of Uranus reaches -224 ° C, it can be called the coldest atmosphere in the solar system. In addition, available data indicate that such extremely low temperatures are present around almost the entire surface of Uranus, even on the side that is not illuminated by the Sun.

Uranus, according to planetary scientists, consists of two layers: the core and the mantle. Current models suggest that the core is primarily composed of rock and ice and is approximately 55 times the mass of . The planet's mantle weighs 8.01 x 10 to the power of 24 kg, or about 13.4 Earth masses. In addition, the mantle consists of water, ammonia and other volatile elements. The main difference between the mantle of Uranus and Jupiter and Saturn is that it is icy, albeit not in the traditional sense of the word. The fact is that the ice is very hot and thick, and the thickness of the mantle is 5.111 km.

What is most surprising about the composition of Uranus, and what distinguishes it from the other gas giants of our star system, is that it does not radiate more energy than it receives from the Sun. Given the fact that even , which is very close in size to Uranus, produces about 2.6 times more heat than it receives from the Sun, scientists today are very intrigued by such a weak power generated by Uranus. At the moment, there are two explanations for this phenomenon. The first indicates that Uranus was exposed to a massive space object in the past, causing the planet to lose much of its internal heat (gained during formation) into space. The second theory states that there is some kind of barrier inside the planet that does not allow the internal heat of the planet to escape to the surface.

Orbit and rotation of Uranus

The very discovery of Uranus allowed scientists to almost double the radius of the known Solar System. This means that on average the orbit of Uranus is about 2.87 x 10 to the power of 9 km. The reason for such a huge distance is the duration of passage of solar radiation from the Sun to the planet. It takes about two hours and forty minutes for sunlight to reach Uranus, which is almost twenty times longer than it takes for sunlight to reach Earth. The enormous distance also affects the length of the year on Uranus; it lasts almost 84 Earth years.

The orbital eccentricity of Uranus is 0.0473, which is only slightly less than that of Jupiter - 0.0484. This factor makes Uranus the fourth of all the planets in the Solar System in terms of circular orbit. The reason for such a small eccentricity of Uranus's orbit is that the difference between its perihelion of 2.74 x 10 to the power of 9 km and its aphelion of 3.01 x 109 km is only 2.71 x 10 to the power of 8 km.

The most interesting point about the rotation of Uranus is the position of the axis. The fact is that the axis of rotation for every planet except Uranus is approximately perpendicular to their orbital plane, but Uranus' axis is tilted almost 98°, which effectively means that Uranus rotates on its side. The result of this position of the planet's axis is that the north pole of Uranus is on the Sun for half of the planetary year, and the other half is on the south pole of the planet. In other words, daytime on one hemisphere of Uranus lasts 42 Earth years, and nighttime on the other hemisphere lasts the same amount. Scientists again cite a collision with a huge cosmic body as the reason why Uranus “turned on its side.”

Considering the fact that the most popular of the rings in our solar system for a long time remained the rings of Saturn, the rings of Uranus could not be discovered until 1977. However, this is not the only reason; there are two more reasons for such a late detection: the distance of the planet from the Earth and the low reflectivity of the rings themselves. In 1986, the Voyager 2 spacecraft was able to determine the presence of two more rings on the planet, in addition to those known at that time. In 2005, the Hubble Space Telescope spotted two more. Today, planetary scientists know of 13 rings of Uranus, the brightest of which is the Epsilon ring.

The rings of Uranus differ from Saturn's in almost every way - from particle size to composition. First, the particles that make up the rings of Saturn are small, little more than a few meters in diameter, while the rings of Uranus contain many bodies up to twenty meters in diameter. Second, the particles in Saturn's rings are mostly made of ice. The rings of Uranus, however, are composed of both ice and significant dust and debris.

William Herschel only discovered Uranus in 1781 because the planet was too dim to be seen by ancient civilizations. Herschel himself initially believed that Uranus was a comet, but later revised his opinion and science confirmed the planetary status of the object. Thus, Uranus became the first planet discovered in modern history. The original name proposed by Herschel was "George's Star" - in honor of King George III, but the scientific community did not accept it. The name "Uranus" was proposed by astronomer Johann Bode, in honor of the ancient Roman god Uranus.
Uranus rotates on its axis once every 17 hours and 14 minutes. Like , the planet rotates in a retrograde direction, opposite to the direction of the Earth and the other six planets.
It is believed that the unusual tilt of Uranus's axis could cause a huge collision with another cosmic body. The theory is that a planet supposedly the size of Earth collided sharply with Uranus, which shifted its axis by almost 90 degrees.
Wind speeds on Uranus can reach up to 900 km per hour.
Uranus has a mass of about 14.5 times the mass of Earth, making it the lightest of the four gas giants of our solar system.
Uranus is often referred to as the "ice giant". In addition to hydrogen and helium in its upper layer (like other gas giants), Uranus also has an icy mantle that surrounds its iron core. The upper atmosphere consists of ammonia and icy methane crystals, which gives Uranus its characteristic pale blue color.
Uranus is the second least dense planet in the solar system, after Saturn.

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