Key facts
- Scale fact
- 50,724 kmdiameter
- Estimated age
- ~4.5 billion years
- Composition
- Hydrogen, helium, water-ammonia-methane ices
- Temperature
- ~76 K cloud tops
Uranus
50,724 kmdiameter
Details
Uranus is an ice giant that rotates tipped over on its side, with its spin axis tilted by about 98 degrees. That extreme tilt makes its seasons unlike any other planet’s, leaving each pole pointed toward the Sun for decades at a time during its 84-year orbit.
Uranus’s rotation axis is tilted by about 98 degrees relative to its orbit, so each pole can face broadly toward the Sun for part of the planet’s 84-year orbit. The atmosphere is mostly hydrogen and helium with methane, while gravity and magnetic measurements indicate an interior richer in heavier volatile materials than Jupiter or Saturn. Voyager 2’s 1986 flyby remains the only close spacecraft survey.
Links
- Editorial guides
- Universe journey
- Solar System
- Preset views
- Wikipedia
- Uranus on Wikipedia
Size neighbors
Objects near Uranus on the scale
On the logarithmic size axis, Uranus falls between Neptune and NGC 4395 Black Hole. The band uses nearby Ice giant planet records.
Sources
References for Uranus
Measurements and descriptive context are compiled by the Scale of Space team from the references below. If you find an error, please let us know.
- Uranus — Wikipedia
- Visual reference: Wikimedia Commons (Voyager 2 1986 / NASA / JPL-Caltech, Public domain)
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About
Scale of Space is a scroll-based journey through the universe, placing objects on a single logarithmic scale so you can compare size across an unbroken range.
Guides explain selected parts of that range, while focused views filter the objects by subject.