Basic Information About the Planet Uranus Uranus is the third largest planet in the solar system and the seventh planet from the Sun. It completes its orbit around the Sun in 83.75 years and turns on its axis every 17 hours and 14 minutes. Uranus' mean distance from the Sun is 1.784 billion miles. This planet is considered to be a "gas giant" because it has no solid surface. Its atmosphere consists of 83% hydrogen, 15% helium, and 2% methane. Below its atmosphere, the mass of Uranus is a liquid core of water, methane, and ammonia with more solid material at its very depth. Its diameter is 31,763 miles and its mass is 14.535 times that of the Earth. The temperature of Uranus near the cloudtops is around -355 Fahrenheit (-215 C). Of Uranus' 11 rings, ten of them are thin and narrow while the eleventh is much wider and more diffuse. This planet has 21 known moons: Cordelia, Ophelia, Bianca, Cressida, Desdemona, Juliet, Portia, Rosalind, Belinda, Puck, Miranda, Ariel, Umbriel, Titania, Oberon, Caliban, Stephano, S/2001 U1, Sycorax, Prospero, and Stebos.
