---
title: "Uranus: facts, distance and size – Krillion Space"
description: "Uranus is the seventh planet from the Sun, an ice giant whose interior is mostly a hot, dense fluid of water, methane and ammonia. With sourced facts."
url: https://krilion.app/atlas/uranus
language: en-US
---

# Uranus

Ice giant. Depth 10 on the Krillion Space voyage, in the Outer Sol.

Uranus is the seventh planet from the Sun, an ice giant whose interior is mostly a hot, dense fluid of water, methane and ammonia. It spins tipped almost completely on its side, which gives it the most extreme seasons of any planet.

![Uranus at depth 10 in Krillion Space, painted by the game (an illustration, not a photograph).](https://krilion.app/assets/atlas/uranus.webp)

## Fact sheet

- **Type:** Ice giant planet
- **Distance:** About 2.9 billion km (1.8 billion miles), or about 19 AU, from the Sun on average
- **Size:** Equatorial diameter about 51,118 km (31,763 miles), about four times as wide as Earth
- **Discovered:** Discovered 13 March 1781 by William Herschel
- **On the voyage:** Depth 10, in the Outer Sol section of the route, between Titan and Neptune

## Things to know

- Uranus's axis is tilted about 97.8 degrees, so it rolls around the Sun on its side and each pole spends about 21 years in darkness during its winter. ([NASA](https://science.nasa.gov/uranus/facts/))
- A year on Uranus lasts about 84 Earth years, while one rotation takes about 17 hours, and it spins in the opposite direction to most planets. ([NASA](https://science.nasa.gov/uranus/facts/))
- Parts of its atmosphere drop to about 49 K (-224°C), making them colder than Neptune even though Neptune is farther from the Sun. ([NASA](https://science.nasa.gov/uranus/facts/))
- William Herschel spotted Uranus on 13 March 1781; he first took it for a comet or a star. ([NASA](https://science.nasa.gov/uranus/facts/))
- During its 1986 flyby, Voyager 2 found 10 new moons and two new rings, and passed about 81,500 km (50,640 miles) from the planet. ([NASA](https://science.nasa.gov/mission/voyager/voyager-2/))

## Missions

Voyager 2 is the only spacecraft to have visited Uranus, flying past on 24 January 1986.

## Sources

- [NASA – Uranus Facts](https://science.nasa.gov/uranus/facts/)
- [NSSDC – Uranus Fact Sheet](https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/uranusfact.html)
- [NASA – Voyager 2](https://science.nasa.gov/mission/voyager/voyager-2/)

## On the route

- Previous landmark: [Titan](https://krilion.app/atlas/titan)
- Next landmark: [Neptune](https://krilion.app/atlas/neptune)
- [The whole Star Atlas](https://krilion.app/atlas)
- [Fly the voyage yourself](https://krilion.app/d/): every right answer warps your ship one stop deeper.