Unusual Uranus

Lesson Plan - Get It!

Audio:

Uranus is the seventh planet from the sun and is a bright, brilliant blue color.

It is one of the four gas giants in the solar system because it is made mostly of gases like hydrogen, helium, frozen ammonia, and methane. Yuck! We could never breathe on Uranus!

Uranus has less gravity than Earth, so you would not be as heavy on Uranus as Earth.

The seventh planet from the sun is also the third biggest planet in the solar system.

Uranus is a gas giant like three other planets, but it is different from any other planet because it spins on its side!

Some people believe that many years ago, a huge object smashed into it and changed the direction of its rotation.

Another theory is that a large moon that was slowly pulled away from the planet by another planet caused Uranus to tilt on its side. Either way, Uranus rotates like no other planet in the solar system.

Uranus is known as the ice giant because it is extremely cold on the planet.

The planet is mostly rock and ice and has a huge rocky core. This makes it a place that cannot support any life.

Another unique fact about Uranus is that because of the extreme planetary pressure of Uranus, there could be trillions of large diamonds in or on the surface of this planet!

• Did you know diamonds are made by carbon and extreme temperature and pressure?

Now that would be some very cold diamond mining! No wonder one nickname for diamonds is ice!

Scientists believe there is a giant ocean on Uranus! This ocean is thought to be 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit!

That would be too hot to swim in or host animals or plant life.

Water boils on Earth at 212 degrees Fahrenheit, so the ocean on Uranus is 23 times hotter than boiling water! Uranus' ocean would be like fire on the water!

Uranus is also almost identical to its neighboring planet, Neptune.

Uranus has rings like Saturn, although they don't stretch out as far. The rings of Uranus are made up of black dust particles and large rocks.

Uranus has 27 moons that orbit around the planet.

For more information about the planet Uranus, watch the video below.

Review what you have learned about Uranus with this fun quiz!

• How did you do?

Head over to the Got It? section to compare your planet with the seventh planet from the sun!