Sign up with Google
Creag
The Boar's Rock
- Joined
- May 19, 2009
- Messages
- 43,526
By Deborah Byrd in SPACE | January 24, 2017
Uranus lies nearly sideways with respect to the plane of its orbit around the sun. That sideways tilt makes a huge difference between winter-summer on Uranus, and autumn-spring.
Uranus, like Earth, has four seasons. But the seasons on Earth and Uranus are very different.
For starters, the length of Uranus’ seasons are different from ours. It takes Earth 365 days to orbit around the sun, but it takes Uranus 84 Earth-years, more or less. So Uranus year is 84 Earth-years along, and each season on Uranus lasts 21 earthly years.
Uranus, like Earth, has a nearly circular orbit, so it remains at the same distance from the sun throughout its long year. It’s the planet’s tilt that gives Uranus its seasons, just as Earth’s seasons are caused by our world’s tilt on its axis.
But the tilts of our planets are different. While Earth orbits nearly upright, Uranus is lying down nearly sideways with respect to its orbit around the sun.
/snip...
The rest of the blog at EarthSky.org: http://earthsky.org/space/what-are-the-seasons-like-on-uranus
Uranus lies nearly sideways with respect to the plane of its orbit around the sun. That sideways tilt makes a huge difference between winter-summer on Uranus, and autumn-spring.
Uranus, like Earth, has four seasons. But the seasons on Earth and Uranus are very different.
For starters, the length of Uranus’ seasons are different from ours. It takes Earth 365 days to orbit around the sun, but it takes Uranus 84 Earth-years, more or less. So Uranus year is 84 Earth-years along, and each season on Uranus lasts 21 earthly years.
Uranus, like Earth, has a nearly circular orbit, so it remains at the same distance from the sun throughout its long year. It’s the planet’s tilt that gives Uranus its seasons, just as Earth’s seasons are caused by our world’s tilt on its axis.
But the tilts of our planets are different. While Earth orbits nearly upright, Uranus is lying down nearly sideways with respect to its orbit around the sun.
/snip...
The rest of the blog at EarthSky.org: http://earthsky.org/space/what-are-the-seasons-like-on-uranus
