SAO 158687

Uranus is the seventh planet from the Sun. Its name is a reference to the Greek god of the sky, Uranus (Caelus), who, according to Greek mythology, was the great-grandfather of Ares (Mars), grandfather of Zeus (Jupiter) and father of Cronus (Saturn). It has the third-largest planetary radius and fourth-largest planetary mass in the Solar System. Uranus is similar in composition to Neptune, and both have bulk chemical compositions which differ from that of the larger gas giants Jupiter and Saturn. For this reason, scientists often classify Uranus and Neptune as "ice giants" to distinguish them from the other giant planets.

As with gas giants, ice giants also lack a well defined "solid surface." Uranus's atmosphere is similar to Jupiter's and Saturn's in its primary composition of hydrogen and helium, but it contains more "ices" such as water, ammonia, and methane, along with traces of other hydrocarbons. It has the coldest planetary atmosphere in the Solar System, with a minimum temperature of , and has a complex, layered cloud structure with water thought to make up the lowest clouds and methane the uppermost layer of clouds. The interior of Uranus is mainly composed of ices and rock.

Like the other giant planets, Uranus has a ring system, a magnetosphere, and numerous moons. The Uranian system has a unique configuration because its axis of rotation is tilted sideways, nearly into the plane of its solar orbit. Its north and south poles, therefore, lie where most other planets have their equators. In 1986, images from ''Voyager 2'' showed Uranus as an almost featureless planet in visible light, without the cloud bands or storms associated with the other giant planets. ''Voyager 2'' remains the only spacecraft to visit the planet. Observations from Earth have shown seasonal change and increased weather activity as Uranus approached its equinox in 2007. Wind speeds can reach .

History

Like the classical planets, Uranus is visible to the naked eye, but it was never recognised as a planet by ancient observers because of its dimness and slow orbit. Sir William Herschel first observed Uranus on 13 March 1781, leading to its discovery as a planet, expanding the known boundaries of the Solar System for the first time in history and making Uranus the first planet classified as such with the aid of a telescope.

Discovery

Uranus had been observed on many occasions before its recognition as a planet, but it was generally mistaken for a star. Possibly the earliest known observation was by Hipparchos, who in 128 BC might have recorded it as a star for his star catalogue that was later incorporated into Ptolemy's ''Almagest''. The earliest definite sighting was in 1690, when John Flamsteed observed it at least six times, cataloguing it as 34 Tauri. The French astronomer Pierre Charles Le Monnier observed Uranus at least twelve times between 1750 and 1769, including on four consecutive nights.

Sir William Herschel observed Uranus on 13 March 1781 from the garden of his house at 19 New King Street in Bath, Somerset, England (now the Herschel Museum of Astronomy), and initially reported it (on 26 April 1781) as a comet. With a homemade 6.2-inch reflecting telescope, Herschel "engaged in a series of observations on the parallax of the fixed stars."Journal of the Royal Society and Royal Astronomical Society 1, 30, quoted in Miner, p. 8.

Herschel recorded in his journal: "In the quartile near ζ Tauri ... either Nebulous star or perhaps a comet." On 17 March he noted: "I looked for the Comet or Nebulous Star and found that it is a Comet, for it has changed its place." When he presented his discovery to the Royal Society, he continued to assert that he had found a comet, but also implicitly compared it to a planet:

Herschel notified the Astronomer Royal Nevil Maskelyne of his discovery and received this flummoxed reply from him on 23 April 1781: "I don't know what to call it. It is as likely to be a regular planet moving in an orbit nearly circular to the sun as a Comet moving in a very eccentric ellipsis. I have not yet seen any coma or tail to it."

Although Herschel continued to describe his new object as a comet, other astronomers had already begun to suspect otherwise. Finnish-Swedish astronomer Anders Johan Lexell, working in Russia, was the first to compute the orbit of the new object. Its nearly circular orbit led him to a conclusion that it was a planet rather than a comet. Berlin astronomer Johann Elert Bode described Herschel's discovery as "a moving star that can be deemed a hitherto unknown planet-like object circulating beyond the orbit of Saturn". Bode concluded that its near-circular orbit was more like a planet's than a comet's.

The object was soon universally accepted as a new planet. By 1783, Herschel acknowledged this to Royal Society president Joseph Banks: "By the observation of the most eminent Astronomers in Europe it appears that the new star, which I had the honour of pointing out to them in March 1781, is a Primary Planet of our Solar System." In recognition of his achievement, King George III gave Herschel an annual stipend of £200 on condition that he move to Windsor so that the Royal Family could look through his telescopes ().

Name

The name of Uranus references the ancient Greek deity of the sky Uranus ( grc, Οὐρανός), known as Caelus in Roman mythology, the father of Cronus (Saturn) and grandfather of Zeus (Jupiter), which was rendered as in Latin (). It is the only planet whose English name is derived directly from a figure of Greek mythology. The adjectival form of Uranus is "Uranian". The pronunciation of the name ''Uranus'' preferred among astronomers is , with stress on the first syllable as in Latin , in contrast to , with stress on the second syllable and a long ''a'', though both are considered acceptable.

Consensus on the name was not reached until almost 70 years after the planet's discovery. During the original discussions following discovery, Maskelyne asked Herschel to "do the astronomical world the to give a name to your planet, which is entirely your own, ndwhich we are so much obliged to you for the discovery of". In response to Maskelyne's request, Herschel decided to name the object (George's Star), or the "Georgian Planet" in honour of his new patron, King George III. He explained this decision in a letter to Joseph Banks:

Herschel's proposed name was not popular outside of Britain and Hanover, and alternatives were soon proposed. Astronomer Jérôme Lalande proposed that it be named ''Herschel'' in honour of its discoverer. Swedish astronomer Erik Prosperin proposed the name ''Neptune'', which was supported by other astronomers who liked the idea to commemorate the victories of the British Royal Naval fleet in the course of the American Revolutionary War by calling the new planet even ''Neptune George III'' or ''Neptune Great Britain''.

In a March 1782 treatise, Bode proposed ''Uranus'', the Latinised version of the Greek god of the sky, Ouranos.: n original German ranslated Bode argued that the name should follow the mythology so as not to stand out as different from the other planets, and that Uranus was an appropriate name as the father of the first generation of the Titans. He also noted that elegance of the name in that just as Saturn was the father of Jupiter, the new planet should be named after the father of Saturn. Bode was however apparently unaware that ''Uranus'' was only the Latinised form of the titular deity, and his Roman equivalent was Caelus. In 1789, Bode's Royal Academy colleague Martin Klaproth named his newly discovered element uranium in support of Bode's choice. Ultimately, Bode's suggestion became the most widely used, and became universal in 1850 when HM Nautical Almanac Office, the final holdout, switched from using ''Georgium Sidus'' to ''Uranus''.

Uranus has two astronomical symbols. The first to be proposed, , was proposed by Johann Gottfried Köhler at Bode's request in 1782.''Astronomisches Jahrbuch für das Jahr 1785.'' George Jacob Decker, Berlin, p. 191. Köhler suggested that the new planet be given the symbol for platinum, which had been described scientifically only 30 years before. As there was no alchemical symbol for platinum, he suggested ⛢ or ⛢, a combination of the planetary-metal symbols ☉ (gold) and ♂ (iron), as platinum (or 'white gold') is found mixed with iron. Bode thought that an upright orientation, ⛢, fit better with the symbols for the other planets while remaining distinct. This symbol predominates in modern astronomical use in the rare cases that symbols are used at all. The second symbol, , was suggested by Lalande in 1784. In a letter to Herschel, Lalande described it as "" ("a globe surmounted by the first letter of your surname"). The second symbol is nearly universal in astrology.

Uranus is called by a variety of names in other languages. In Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese, its name is literally translated as the "sky king star" (). In Thai, its official name is (), as in English. Its other name in Thai is (, Star of Mṛtyu), after the Sanskrit word for 'death', (). In Mongolian, its name is (), translated as 'King of the Sky', reflecting its namesake god's role as the ruler of the heavens. In Hawaiian, its name is , a loanword for the discoverer Herschel. In Māori, its name is .

Orbit and rotation

Uranus orbits the Sun once every 84 years, taking an average of seven years to pass through each of the dozen constellations of the zodiac. In 2033, the planet will have made its third complete orbit around the Sun since being discovered in 1781. The planet has returned to the point of its discovery northeast of Zeta Tauri twice since then, on 25 March 1865 and 29 March 1949. Uranus will return to this location again on 3 April 2033. Its average distance from the Sun is roughly . The difference between its minimum and maximum distance from the Sun is 1.8 AU, larger than that of any other planet, though not as large as that of dwarf planet Pluto.Jean Meeus, ''Astronomical Algorithms'' (Richmond, VA: Willmann-Bell, 1998) p 271. From the 1841 aphelion to the 2092 one, perihelia are always 18.28 and aphelia always 20.10 astronomical units The intensity of sunlight varies inversely with the square of distance, and so on Uranus (at about 20 times the distance from the Sun compared to Earth) it is about 1/400 the intensity of light on Earth.

The orbital elements of Uranus were first calculated in 1783 by Pierre-Simon Laplace. With time, discrepancies began to appear between the predicted and observed orbits, and in 1841, John Couch Adams first proposed that the differences might be due to the gravitational tug of an unseen planet. In 1845, Urbain Le Verrier began his own independent research into Uranus's orbit. On 23 September 1846, Johann Gottfried Galle located a new planet, later named Neptune, at nearly the position predicted by Le Verrier.

The rotational period of the interior of Uranus is 17 hours, 14 minutes. As on all the giant planets, its upper atmosphere experiences strong winds in the direction of rotation. At some latitudes, such as about 60 degrees south, visible features of the atmosphere move much faster, making a full rotation in as little as 14 hours.

Axial tilt

The Uranian axis of rotation is approximately parallel with the plane of the Solar System, with an axial tilt of 97.77° (as defined by prograde rotation). This gives it seasonal changes completely unlike those of the other planets. Near the solstice, one pole faces the Sun continuously and the other faces away, with only a narrow strip around the equator experiencing a rapid day–night cycle, with the Sun low over the horizon. At 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. 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.

One result of this axis orientation is that, averaged over the Uranian year, the near-polar regions of Uranus receive a greater energy input from the Sun than its equatorial regions. Nevertheless, Uranus is hotter at its equator than at its poles. The underlying mechanism that causes this is unknown. The reason for Uranus's unusual axial tilt is also not known with certainty, but the usual speculation is that during the formation of the Solar System, an Earth-sized protoplanet collided with Uranus, causing the skewed orientation. Research by Jacob Kegerreis of Durham University suggests that the tilt resulted from a rock larger than the Earth crashing into the planet 3 to 4 billion years ago.
Uranus's south pole was pointed almost directly at the Sun at the time of ''Voyager 2'' flyby in 1986. The labelling of this pole as "south" uses the definition currently endorsed by the International Astronomical Union, namely that the north pole of a planet or satellite is the pole that points above the invariable plane of the Solar System, regardless of the direction the planet is spinning. A different convention is sometimes used, in which a body's north and south poles are defined according to the right-hand rule in relation to the direction of rotation.

Visibility

The mean apparent magnitude of Uranus is 5.68 with a standard deviation of 0.17, while the extremes are 5.38 and 6.03. This range of brightness is near the limit of naked eye visibility. Much of the variability is dependent upon the planetary latitudes being illuminated from the Sun and viewed from the Earth. Its angular diameter is between 3.4 and 3.7 arcseconds, compared with 16 to 20 arcseconds for Saturn and 32 to 45 arcseconds for Jupiter. At opposition, Uranus is visible to the naked eye in dark skies, and becomes an easy target even in urban conditions with binoculars. In larger amateur telescopes with an objective diameter of between 15 and 23 cm, Uranus appears as a pale cyan disk with distinct limb darkening. With a large telescope of 25 cm or wider, cloud patterns, as well as some of the larger satellites, such as Titania and Oberon, may be visible.

Physical characteristics

Internal structure

Uranus's mass is roughly 14.5 times that of Earth, making it the least massive of the giant planets. Its diameter is slightly larger than Neptune's at roughly four times that of Earth. A resulting density of 1.27 g/cm³ makes Uranus the second least dense planet, after Saturn. This value indicates that it is made primarily of various ices, such as water, ammonia, and methane. The total mass of ice in Uranus's interior is not precisely known, because different figures emerge depending on the model chosen; it must be between 9.3 and 13.5 Earth masses. Hydrogen and helium constitute only a small part of the total, with between 0.5 and 1.5 Earth masses. The remainder of the non-ice mass (0.5 to 3.7 Earth masses) is accounted for by rocky material.

The standard model of Uranus's structure is that it consists of three layers: a rocky ( silicate/ iron–nickel) core in the centre, an icy mantle in the middle and an outer gaseous hydrogen/helium envelope. The core is relatively small, with a mass of only 0.55 Earth masses and a radius less than 20% of Uranus'; the mantle comprises its bulk, with around 13.4 Earth masses, and the upper atmosphere is relatively insubstantial, weighing about 0.5 Earth masses and extending for the last 20% of Uranus's radius. Uranus's core density is around 9 g/cm³, with a pressure in the centre of 8 million  bars (800 GPa) and a temperature of about 5000  K. The ice mantle is not in fact composed of ice in the conventional sense, but of a hot and dense fluid consisting of water, ammonia and other volatiles. This fluid, which has a high electrical conductivity, is sometimes called a water–ammonia ocean.

The extreme pressure and temperature deep within Uranus may break up the methane molecules, with the carbon atoms condensing into crystals of diamond that rain down through the mantle like hailstones. This phenomenon is similar to diamond rains that are theorised by scientists to exist on Jupiter, Saturn, and Neptune. Very-high-pressure experiments at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory suggest that the base of the mantle may comprise an ocean of metallic liquid carbon, perhaps with floating solid 'diamond-bergs'.

The bulk compositions of Uranus and Neptune are different from those of Jupiter and Saturn, with ice dominating over gases, hence justifying their separate classification as ice giants. There may be a layer of ionic water where the water molecules break down into a soup of hydrogen and oxygen ions, and deeper down superionic water in which the oxygen crystallises but the hydrogen ions move freely within the oxygen lattice.

Although the model considered above is reasonably standard, it is not unique; other models also satisfy observations. For instance, if substantial amounts of hydrogen and rocky material are mixed in the ice mantle, the total mass of ices in the interior will be lower, and, correspondingly, the total mass of rocks and hydrogen will be higher. Presently available data does not allow a scientific determination of which model is correct. The fluid interior structure of Uranus means that it has no solid surface. The gaseous atmosphere gradually transitions into the internal liquid layers. For the sake of convenience, a revolving oblate spheroid set at the point at which atmospheric pressure equals 1 bar (100 kPa) is conditionally designated as a "surface". It has equatorial and polar radii of and , respectively. This surface is used throughout this article as a zero point for altitudes.

Internal heat

Uranus's internal heat appears markedly lower than that of the other giant planets; in astronomical terms, it has a low thermal flux. Why Uranus's internal temperature is so low is still not understood. Neptune, which is Uranus's near twin in size and composition, radiates 2.61 times as much energy into space as it receives from the Sun, but Uranus radiates hardly any excess heat at all. The total power radiated by Uranus in the far infrared (i.e. heat) part of the spectrum is times the solar energy absorbed in its atmosphere. Uranus's heat flux is only , which is lower than the internal heat flux of Earth of about . The lowest temperature recorded in Uranus's tropopause is , making Uranus the coldest planet in the Solar System.

One of the hypotheses for this discrepancy suggests that when Uranus was hit by a supermassive impactor, which caused it to expel most of its primordial heat, it was left with a depleted core temperature. This impact hypothesis is also used in some attempts to explain the planet's axial tilt. Another hypothesis is that some form of barrier exists in Uranus's upper layers that prevents the core's heat from reaching the surface. For example, convection may take place in a set of compositionally different layers, which may inhibit the upward heat transport; perhaps double diffusive convection is a limiting factor.

In a 2021 study the ice giants' interior conditions were mimicked by compressing water containing minerals like olivine and ferropericlase, thus showing that large amounts of magnesium could be dissolved in the liquid interiors of Uranus and Neptune. If Uranus has more of this magnesium than Neptune it could form a thermal insulation layer, thus potentially explaining the planet's low temperature.

Atmosphere

Although there is no well-defined solid surface within Uranus's interior, the outermost part of Uranus's gaseous envelope that is accessible to remote sensing is called its atmosphere. Remote-sensing capability extends down to roughly 300 km below the level, with a corresponding pressure around and temperature of . The tenuous thermosphere extends over two planetary radii from the nominal surface, which is defined to lie at a pressure of 1 bar. The Uranian atmosphere can be divided into three layers: the troposphere, between altitudes of and pressures from 100 to 0.1 bar (10 MPa to 10 kPa); the stratosphere, spanning altitudes between and pressures of between (10 kPa to 10  µPa); and the thermosphere extending from 4,000 km to as high as 50,000 km from the surface. There is no mesosphere.

Composition

The composition of Uranus's atmosphere is different from its bulk, consisting mainly of molecular hydrogen and helium. The helium molar fraction, i.e. the number of helium atoms per molecule of gas, is in the upper troposphere, which corresponds to a mass fraction . This value is close to the protosolar helium mass fraction of , indicating that helium has not settled in its centre as it has in the gas giants. The third-most-abundant component of Uranus's atmosphere is methane (). Methane has prominent absorption bands in the visible and near-infrared (IR), making Uranus aquamarine or cyan in colour. Methane molecules account for 2.3% of the atmosphere by molar fraction below the methane cloud deck at the pressure level of ; this represents about 20 to 30 times the carbon abundance found in the Sun. The mixing ratio is much lower in the upper atmosphere due to its extremely low temperature, which lowers the saturation level and causes excess methane to freeze out. The abundances of less volatile compounds such as ammonia, water, and hydrogen sulfide in the deep atmosphere are poorly known. They are probably also higher than solar values. Along with methane, trace amounts of various hydrocarbons are found in the stratosphere of Uranus, which are thought to be produced from methane by photolysis induced by the solar ultraviolet (UV) radiation. They include ethane (), acetylene (), methylacetylene (), and diacetylene (). Spectroscopy has also uncovered traces of water vapour, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide in the upper atmosphere, which can only originate from an external source such as infalling dust and comets.

Troposphere

The troposphere is the lowest and densest part of the atmosphere and is characterised by a decrease in temperature with altitude. The temperature falls from about at the base of the nominal troposphere at −300 km to at 50 km. The temperatures in the coldest upper region of the troposphere (the tropopause) actually vary in the range between depending on planetary latitude. The tropopause region is responsible for the vast majority of Uranus's thermal far infrared emissions, thus determining its effective temperature of .

The troposphere is thought to have a highly complex cloud structure; water clouds are hypothesised to lie in the pressure range of , ammonium hydrosulfide clouds in the range of , ammonia or hydrogen sulfide clouds at between and finally directly detected thin methane clouds at . The troposphere is a dynamic part of the atmosphere, exhibiting strong winds, bright clouds and seasonal changes.

Upper atmosphere

The middle layer of the Uranian atmosphere is the stratosphere, where temperature generally increases with altitude from in the tropopause to between at the base of the thermosphere. The heating of the stratosphere is caused by absorption of solar UV and IR radiation by methane and other hydrocarbons, which form in this part of the atmosphere as a result of methane photolysis. Heat is also conducted from the hot thermosphere. The hydrocarbons occupy a relatively narrow layer at altitudes of between 100 and 300 km corresponding to a pressure range of 1000 to 10 Pa and temperatures of between . The most abundant hydrocarbons are methane, acetylene and ethane with mixing ratios of around relative to hydrogen. The mixing ratio of carbon monoxide is similar at these altitudes. Heavier hydrocarbons and carbon dioxide have mixing ratios three orders of magnitude lower. The abundance ratio of water is around 7. Ethane and acetylene tend to condense in the colder lower part of stratosphere and tropopause (below 10 mBar level) forming haze layers, which may be partly responsible for the bland appearance of Uranus. The concentration of hydrocarbons in the Uranian stratosphere above the haze is significantly lower than in the stratospheres of the other giant planets.

The outermost layer of the Uranian atmosphere is the thermosphere and corona, which has a uniform temperature around 800 to 850 K. The heat sources necessary to sustain such a high level are not understood, as neither the solar UV nor the auroral activity can provide the necessary energy to maintain these temperatures. The weak cooling efficiency due to the lack of hydrocarbons in the stratosphere above 0.1 mBar pressure level may contribute too. In addition to molecular hydrogen, the thermosphere-corona contains many free hydrogen atoms. Their small mass and high temperatures explain why the corona extends as far as , or two Uranian radii, from its surface. This extended corona is a unique feature of Uranus. Its effects include a drag on small particles orbiting Uranus, causing a general depletion of dust in the Uranian rings. The Uranian thermosphere, together with the upper part of the stratosphere, corresponds to the ionosphere of Uranus. Observations show that the ionosphere occupies altitudes from . The Uranian ionosphere is denser than that of either Saturn or Neptune, which may arise from the low concentration of hydrocarbons in the stratosphere. The ionosphere is mainly sustained by solar UV radiation and its density depends on the solar activity. Auroral activity is insignificant as compared to Jupiter and Saturn.

Magnetosphere

Before the arrival of ''Voyager 2'', no measurements of the Uranian magnetosphere had been taken, so its nature remained a mystery. Before 1986, scientists had expected the magnetic field of Uranus to be in line with the solar wind, because it would then align with Uranus's poles that lie in the ecliptic.

''Voyager''s observations revealed that Uranus's magnetic field is peculiar, both because it does not originate from its geometric centre, and because it is tilted at 59° from the axis of rotation. In fact the magnetic dipole is shifted from Uranus's centre towards the south rotational pole by as much as one third of the planetary radius. This unusual geometry results in a highly asymmetric magnetosphere, where the magnetic field strength on the surface in the southern hemisphere can be as low as 0.1 gauss (10  µT), whereas in the northern hemisphere it can be as high as 1.1 gauss (110 µT). The average field at the surface is 0.23 gauss (23 µT). Studies of ''Voyager 2'' data in 2017 suggest that this asymmetry causes Uranus's magnetosphere to connect with the solar wind once a Uranian day, opening the planet to the Sun's particles. In comparison, the magnetic field of Earth is roughly as strong at either pole, and its "magnetic equator" is roughly parallel with its geographical equator. The dipole moment of Uranus is 50 times that of Earth. Neptune has a similarly displaced and tilted magnetic field, suggesting that this may be a common feature of ice giants. One hypothesis is that, unlike the magnetic fields of the terrestrial and gas giants, which are generated within their cores, the ice giants' magnetic fields are generated by motion at relatively shallow depths, for instance, in the water–ammonia ocean. Another possible explanation for the magnetosphere's alignment is that there are oceans of liquid diamond in Uranus's interior that would deter the magnetic field.

Despite its curious alignment, in other respects the Uranian magnetosphere is like those of other planets: it has a bow shock at about 23 Uranian radii ahead of it, a magnetopause at 18 Uranian radii, a fully developed magnetotail, and radiation belts. Overall, the structure of Uranus's magnetosphere is different from Jupiter's and more similar to Saturn's. Uranus's magnetotail trails behind it into space for millions of kilometres and is twisted by its sideways rotation into a long corkscrew.

Uranus's magnetosphere contains charged particles: mainly protons and electrons, with a small amount of H₂⁺ ions. Many of these particles probably derive from the thermosphere. The ion and electron energies can be as high as 4 and 1.2 megaelectronvolts, respectively. The density of low-energy (below 1 kiloelectronvolt) ions in the inner magnetosphere is about 2 cm⁻³. The particle population is strongly affected by the Uranian moons, which sweep through the magnetosphere, leaving noticeable gaps. The particle flux is high enough to cause darkening or space weathering of their surfaces on an astronomically rapid timescale of 100,000 years. This may be the cause of the uniformly dark colouration of the Uranian satellites and rings. Uranus has relatively well developed aurorae, which are seen as bright arcs around both magnetic poles. Unlike Jupiter's, Uranus's aurorae seem to be insignificant for the energy balance of the planetary thermosphere. In March 2020, NASA astronomers reported the detection of a large atmospheric magnetic bubble, also known as a plasmoid, released into outer space from the planet Uranus, after reevaluating old data recorded by the '' Voyager 2'' space probe during a flyby of the planet in 1986.

Climate

At ultraviolet and visible wavelengths, Uranus's atmosphere is bland in comparison to the other giant planets, even to Neptune, which it otherwise closely resembles. When ''Voyager 2'' flew by Uranus in 1986, it observed a total of ten cloud features across the entire planet. One proposed explanation for this dearth of features is that Uranus's internal heat is markedly lower than that of the other giant planets, as stated previously Uranus is the coldest planet in the Solar System.

Banded structure, winds and clouds

In 1986, ''Voyager 2'' found that the visible southern hemisphere of Uranus can be subdivided into two regions: a bright polar cap and dark equatorial bands. Their boundary is located at about −45° of latitude. A narrow band straddling the latitudinal range from −45 to −50° is the brightest large feature on its visible surface. It is called a southern "collar". The cap and collar are thought to be a dense region of methane clouds located within the pressure range of 1.3 to 2 bar (see above). Besides the large-scale banded structure, ''Voyager 2'' observed ten small bright clouds, most lying several degrees to the north from the collar. In all other respects Uranus looked like a dynamically dead planet in 1986. ''Voyager 2'' arrived during the height of Uranus's southern summer and could not observe the norther