Uranus

Uranus is the 7th planet to the Sun. Uranus is the 3rd largest of all the planets. Uranus is known as "The Bull's Eye Planet", because the belts and rings make it look like a Bull's Eye. Uranus is a Gas Giant, a Outer Planet, or a Jovian Planet, but Uranus is often referred to a "Ice Giant" because of it's size and the freezing temperatures.

Overview
Uranus is the coldest planet in the Solar System. The average temperature on Uranus is -224 Celsius. Uranus is the only planet that spins and rotates on it's side. Scientist think a gigantic object flew into Uranus and it made it tilt. The chemical element Uranium, discovered in 1789, was named after the newly discovered planet Uranus. Uranus has 13 presently know rings. they are usually a few kilometers wide. It is believed that the rings are probably quite young. The matter within the rings is thought to be parts of a moon or moons that were shattered by high speed impacts with an object such as a comet or asteroid. Uranus wind speeds can reach up to 900 km per hour. Uranus is the second least dense planet in the solar system, after Saturn. The Voyager 2 is the only spacecraft to have flown by Uranus. This happened in 1986 and it flew past the planet at a distance of around 81,500 km. This mission returned the very first close-up images of the planet, its ring system and its orbiting moons. It takes Uranus 84 Earth Years to orbit and to go around the Sun. Its axis is at 98 degrees, which means it almost lies sideways as it orbits the Sun. This means that the north and south poles of Uranus lie near where the equator is on Earth. During parts of its orbit one or other of the poles directly face the Sun which means the planet gets around 42 years of direct sunlight followed by 42 years of darkness.