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Uranus, the third largest planet in our solar system, may be the strangest because it spins on its side. That severe tilt to its rotational axis may result from a great collision long ago. As the seventh planet from the Sun, Uranus takes 84 years to complete an orbit. It is a "gas giant" with no solid surface. It may have a small, silicate-rich core, but most of its gas consists of water, ammonia and methane. The methane gas above the cloud layers gives it a blue-green color.
The only spacecraft to visit Uranus, Voyager 2, saw few features in the planet's atmosphere when it flew by in 1986. It did discover 10 moons and two rings in addition to studying moons and rings previously seen from Earth.
Moons of Uranus have been named for characters in the works of William Shakespeare and Alexander Pope.
For more information, visit NASA's Solar System Exploration site.
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