Uranus is the seventh planet from the Sun. Its name is a reference to the Greek god of the sky, Uranus, who, according to Greek mythology, was the great-grandfather of Ares, grandfather of Zeus and father of Cronus. It has the third-largest planetary radius and fourth-largest planetary mass in the Solar System. Like the other gas giants, Uranus has an atmosphere composed of mostly hydrogen, followed by helium and a little methane. What is very interesting about Uranus is that the planet has an enormous 98 degree tilt on its axis. Basically, it is laying on its side with the poles receiving the direct sunlight. Uranus possesses two sets of rings. The inner system of rings consists mostly of narrow, dark rings, while an outer system of two more-distant rings, discovered by the Hubble Space Telescope, are brightly colored: one red, one blue. Scientists have identified 13 known rings around Uranus. Uranus is made of water, methane, and ammonia fluids above a small rocky center. Its atmosphere is made of hydrogen and helium like Jupiter and Saturn, but it also has methane. The methane makes Uranus blue. Uranus also has faint rings. Uranus is the only planet whose equator is nearly at a right angle to its orbit, with a tilt of 97.77 degrees – possibly the result of a collision with an Earth-sized object long ago. This unique tilt causes the most extreme seasons in the solar system. Uranus is the seventh planet from the sun and the first to be discovered by scientists. Although Uranus is visible to the naked eye, it was long mistaken as a star because of the planet's dimness and slow orbit. The planet is also notable for its dramatic tilt, which causes its axis to point nearly directly at the sun. 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. Only one spacecraft has visited distant Uranus. After traveling more than 1.8 billion miles (3 billion kilometers) in nine years, NASA's Voyager 2 gathered much of its critical information about the mysterious planet, including its rings and moons, in just six hours. Uranus is the only planet in the Solar System that spins on its side. It is believed that this was caused by a collision in the distant past. Like Venus, Uranus also spins in the opposite direction than the other planets of the Solar System. The closest planets to Uranus, its neighbors, are Neptune and Saturn. The length of a day in uranus is 17 hours and 14 mins. Deep within Neptune and Uranus, it rains diamonds or so astronomers and physicists have suspected for nearly 40 years. The outer planets of our Solar System are hard to study, however. Only a single space mission, Voyager 2, has flown by to reveal some of their secrets, so diamond rain has remained only a hypothesis. Speeds on Uranus range from 90 to 360 mph and the planet's average temperature is a frigid -353 degrees F. The coldest temperature found in Uranus' lower atmosphere so far is -371 degrees F., which rivals Neptune's frigid temperatures. The size, mass, composition and rotation of Uranus and Neptune are in fact so similar that they are often called planetary twins. Uranus has the unfortunate reputation of being the most boring planet in the solar system. But where it appeared to be a nearly featureless, hazy blue ball to Voyager 2, it is now blooming dozens of clouds that are visible to the sharp-eyed Keck II Telescope.

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