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URANUS
Uranus was discovered in 1781 by
Sir William Herschel, seeing a featureless, bluish, green disk
in his telescope. The atmosphere is mainly hydrogen with a minor
percentage helium. A thin methane ice clouds was detected by Voyager
2. Deep within Uranus exists a superheated water ocean,
perhaps 10,000 km deep which contains large concentrations of
ionized chemicals. It is from this ocean that the magnetic
field may originate. Beneath this ionic ocean is believed to be a
core of molten rocky materials. Unlike the other gas giant
there is no evidence of any significant internal heat source. Uranus
also has rings! Observations have indicated the presences of 10 narrow
rings and one broad ring, in addition to 100 or more ringlets.
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