While most of the satellites orbiting other planets take their names from Greek or Roman mythology, Uranus' moons are unique in being named for characters from the works of William Shakespeare and Alexander Pope.ДЄll of Uranus' inner moons appear to be roughly half water ice and half rock. Uranus is also one of just two planets that rotate in the opposite direction than most of the planets (Venus is the other one), from east to west. For nearly a quarter of each Uranian year, the Sun shines directly over each pole, plunging the other half of the planet into a 21-year-long, dark winter. This unique tilt causes the most extreme seasons in the solar system.

Uranus is the only planet whose equator is nearly at a right angle to its orbit, with a tilt of 97.77 degrees вЂ“ possibly the result of a collision with an Earth-sized object long ago. And Uranus makes a complete orbit around the Sun (a year in Uranian time) in about 84 Earth years (30,687 Earth days). One day on Uranus takes about 17 hours (the time it takes for Uranus to rotate or spin once). From this distance, it takes sunlight 2 hours and 40 minutes to travel from the Sun to Uranus.

One astronomical unit (abbreviated as AU), is the distance from the Sun to Earth. If Earth was the size of a nickel, Uranus would be about as big as a softball.ДЇrom an average distance of 1.8 billion miles (2.9 billion kilometers), Uranus is 19.8 astronomical units away from the Sun. With a radius of 15,759.2 miles (25,362 kilometers), Uranus is 4 times wider than Earth. The temperatures, pressures, and materials that characterize this planet are most likely too extreme and volatile for organisms to adapt to. Uranus' environment is not conducive to life as we know it. Instead, the planet was named for Uranus, the Greek god of the sky, as suggested by Johann Bode. William Herschel tried unsuccessfully to name his discovery Georgium Sidus after King George III. It was two years later that the object was universally accepted as a new planet, in part because of observations by astronomer Johann Elert Bode. The first planet found with the aid of a telescope, Uranus was discovered in 1781 by astronomer William Herschel, although he originally thought it was either a comet or a star. This unique tilt makes Uranus appear to spin on its side, orbiting the Sun like a rolling ball. The ice giant is surrounded by 13 faint rings and 27 small moons as it rotates at a nearly 90-degree angle from the plane of its orbit. The seventh planet from the Sun with the third largest diameter in our solar system, Uranus is very cold and windy.

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