Position - seventh from the sun

Distance from sun - (nearest) 2740 million km (furthest) 3010 million km (average) 2880 million km

Minimum distance from Earth - 2590 million km

Diameter - 51,000 km

Satellites - at least 15 the largest being Titania (1000 km) and Ariel (800 km). The others are named Cordelia, Ophelia, Bianca, Cressida, Desdemona, Juliet, Portia, Rosalind, Belinda, Puck, Miranda, Umbriel and Oberon.

Atmosphere - hydrogen, helium and methane

Surface Temperature - about - 200 ^oC

Length of Day (time taken to rotate once) - about 17 hours

Length of Year (time taken to go round the Sun) - 84 Earth years

Comments - Uranus is another gas giant. It orbits the sun on it's side so the poles point sideways and the equator runs from top to bottom. It was not discovered until 1781.

Major Features - Uranus has a ring system which has only recently been discovered. The rings are quite wide but rather faint. The planet itself is rather featureless green-blue.

Seeing Uranus from Earth - Uranus is very faint and it can only just be seen from Earth with binoculars is you know exactly where to look. You really need a telescope to see it.

Getting There - The only probe to visit Uranus so far was Voyager 2 which reached the planet in 1986 after visiting Jupiter and Saturn.