⛢ Outer Solar System
Uranus
Cold, strange, and largely misunderstood.
Uranus is the solar system's oddity. It rotates on its side — its axial tilt is 98 degrees, meaning its poles experience 42 years of continuous sunlight followed by 42 years of darkness. No one knows exactly why. Its blue-green colour comes from methane in its upper atmosphere absorbing red light. It has rings, faint and dark, discovered only in 1977. It is cold, strange, and largely misunderstood.
"Cold, strange, and largely misunderstood."
Key Data
Distance from Sun
Axial Tilt
Atmospheric Temperature
Day Length
Confirmed Moons
Orbital Speed
Diameter
Peak Wind Speed
One Remarkable Thing
Uranus has the coldest planetary atmosphere in the solar system — colder even than Neptune, despite Neptune being further from the Sun. Scientists still cannot fully explain why.
Scale Relative to Earth
Uranus's diameter is 50,724 km — four times Earth's. Despite its size, it is the solar system's least understood large planet.