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On the other side of Uranus's orbit, the orientation of the poles towards the Sun is reversed. Each pole gets around 42 years of continuous sunlight, followed by 42 years of darkness. [74] Near the time of the equinoxes, the Sun faces the equator of Uranus, giving a period of day–night cycles similar to those seen on most of the other planets.
Its unusual tilt makes Uranus appear to orbit the sun like a rolling ball. Uranus, which orbits almost 20 times further from the sun than Earth does, has 28 known moons and two sets of rings.
NASA’s Voyager 2 flyby in 1986 provided the only close-up look at Uranus. Nearly 40 years later, scientists are looking back at this data and finding out the visit happened during a strange ...
Uranus is the third-largest and fourth most massive planet in the Solar System. It orbits the Sun at a distance of about 2.8 billion kilometers (1.7 billion miles) and completes one orbit every 84 years. The length of a day on Uranus as measured by Voyager 2 is 17 hours and 14 minutes. Uranus is distinguished by the fact that it is tipped on ...
A synodic day (or synodic rotation period or solar day) is the period for a celestial object to rotate once in relation to the star it is orbiting, and is the basis of solar time. The synodic day is distinguished from the sidereal day , which is one complete rotation in relation to distant stars [ 1 ] and is the basis of sidereal time.
NASA scientists say Uranus' rings have only been captured by two other cameras. They were first scoped out by the Voyager 2 spacecraft as it flew past in 1986. Later, the Kec
Sun-synchronous orbit: An orbit which combines altitude and inclination in such a way that the satellite passes over any given point of the planets's surface at the same local solar time. Such an orbit can place a satellite in constant sunlight and is useful for imaging, spy, and weather satellites.
No spacecraft other than Voyager 2 has flown by our seventh planet from the sun. Alone but certainly unique, Uranus rotates at a nearly 90-degree angle and is surrounded by 13 icy rings.