In this video, we are going to discuss the properties of the two
ice giants in our solar system.
These are the last planets of our solar system that are officially recognized as planets.
But before we begin to explore the two ice giants,
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Uranus is known as the ice giant and is the seventh planet from the Sun
at an average distance of 2871 million km.
Due to its composition and distance from the Sun,
Uranus can reach some of the coldest temperatures in the solar system with an
average of –216 deg C or –357 deg F.
It was the first planet that was discovered with the help of a telescope
since it was too far away to see by the naked eye.
It is divided into 4 main parts: the core,
the mantle, the inner atmosphere, and the outer atmosphere.
Like Venus, Uranus rotates east to west, however,
the rotation axis of Uranus is tilted almost parallel to its orbital plane,
so it appears to be rotating on its side.
This situation may be the result of a collision with a planet-sized
body early in the planet’s history, which apparently radically changed its rotation.
Because of Uranus’ unusual orientation,
the planet experiences extreme variations in sunlight during each 20-year-long season.
The orbital period of Uranus is about 84 Earth years with
a rotation period being a little over 17 hours.
The atmosphere is mostly hydrogen and helium,
with small amounts of methane and traces of water and ammonia.
Uranus gets its blue-green color from methane gas in the atmosphere
as sunlight passes through it and is reflected back out by the clouds.
Methane gas absorbs the red portion of the light, resulting in a blue-green color.
The bulk of the mass of Uranus is contained in an extended liquid core
consisting mostly of icy materials such as water, methane, and ammonia.
Uranus has 2 systems of narrow dark rings along with many moons
named for characters from the works of William Shakespeare or Alexander Pope.
Furthermore, Uranus has a very irregular magnetic field
since it is tilted 60 degrees from the planet’s axis of rotation and offset from the center.
Neptune is the eighth and farthest known planet from the Sun in the Solar System.
This ice giant was the first planet located through mathematical predictions
rather than through regular observations of the sky.
It is divided into 4 main regions: the core,
the mantle, the inner atmosphere, and the outer atmosphere.
Nearly 4500 million kilometers or 2800 million miles from the Sun,
Neptune orbits the Sun once every 165 years with a rotation period of about 16 hours.
Neptune’s atmosphere extends to great depths, gradually merging into water
and other melted ice over a heavier, approximately Earth-size solid core.
Neptune’s blue color is the result of methane in the atmosphere combined with some other
unknown element that causes it to be a more intense color than Uranus.
Despite its great distance and low energy input from the Sun,
Neptune’s winds can be three times stronger than Jupiter’s and nine times stronger than Earth’s.
Neptune has six known rings along with 13 known moons.
Triton is Neptune’s largest moon which orbits the planet in the opposite direction compared
with the rest of the moons, suggesting that it may have been captured by Neptune in the distant past.
Triton is extremely cold with temperatures on
its surface of about –235 degrees Celsius or –391 degrees Fahrenheit.
Despite this deep freeze at Triton, Voyager 2 discovered geysers spewing icy material
upward more than 8 kilometers (5 miles). Triton’s thin atmosphere, also discovered by Voyager,
has been detected from Earth several times since
and is growing warmer but scientists do not yet know the reasons why.
Well there you have it, the outer planets of our solar system explained!
Did we miss any interesting facts?
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