Uranus

Although it's a largely unremarkable planet, Uranus has an unusual feature - it spins on it's side. Like all of the Gas Giants, it has rings, which were discovered in 1977, but they are faint, and cannot be seen except for close up. It also has a large amount of moons, as do all of the Gas Giants. Other than that, not much is known about Uranus. Even when seen up close by Voyager spacecraft, there are no visible features on Uranus. It is just a huge, blue, very cold ball of gas.

Although one of the smaller Gas Giants, Uranus is still large enough to hold 64 planets the size of Earth, and is the third largest planet in the solar system.
Uranus was discovered in 1781 and is named after the Greek god of the heavens.
One year on Uranus is equal to approximately 84 Earth years.
The only spacecraft ever to visit Uranus was Voyager 2 in 1986.
Uranus has 21 known moons, and may have at least 27, both inside and outside its rings.

The temperature in the upper atmosphere of Uranus is so cold that the methane in its atmosphere condenses and forms a thin cloud layer. This cloud layer is what gives Uranus its blue-green appearance.

Many of Uranus's moons are named after characters from Shakespeare's plays. The picture opposite is Oberon.

Images of Uranus(above) and Oberon courtesy of NASA