{"id":1500,"date":"2020-04-30T11:33:53","date_gmt":"2020-04-30T11:33:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/oliverberry.com\/?p=1500"},"modified":"2020-05-01T08:42:13","modified_gmt":"2020-05-01T08:42:13","slug":"the-universe-oliver-berry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/oliverberry.com\/writing\/the-universe-oliver-berry\/","title":{"rendered":"The Universe"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I recently worked on probably my most out-of-this-world project yet – Lonely Planet’s guide to… The Universe!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the book I wrote chapters on Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Jupiter (with a little help from NASA), and covered some of the introductory sections too. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can read an extract below. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Uranus<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Planet type: Ice Giant<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Number of moons: 27<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Size compared to earth: x 4<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The jokes just write themselves, don\u2019t they? The most\nunfortunately named planet in the solar system has long been the butt of\nschoolyard jokes (FYI, the name relates to the Roman god of the sky, and it\u2019s\npronounced YOOR-uh-us, okay?) So you can stop giggling at the back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Apart from its irresistibly snigger-worthy name, Uranus is\nfascinating for all kinds of scientific reasons. It\u2019s the third largest planet\nin our solar system, and the seventh most distant from the Sun. Discovered in\n1781 by astronomer William Herschel, Uranus is surrounded by 13 faint rings and\n27 small moons. Its atmosphere is composed of helium and hydrogen, with a bit\nof methane swirling in the mix which gives the planet its distinctive blue-green\ncolour. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the weirdest thing about Uranus is the way it spins. Like\nVenus, it rotates from east to west (the opposite way to earth). Even more\nbizarrely, Uranus also spins at 90\u02da to its orbit, which makes it appear to revolve\non its side, like a rolling ball \u2013 the only planet in the solar system to do\nso. This unique sideways rotation means the seasons on Uranus are extremely\nstrange indeed: the planet’s north pole experiences 21 years of nighttime in\nwinter, 21 years of daytime in summer and 42 years of day and night in the\nspring and fall. Even for the soundest of sleepers, that\u2019s really going to play\nhavoc with your circadian rhythm. And living on Uranus is also going to mess up\nyour birthday \u2013 with an average orbit of around 84 earth years, most Earthlings\nwould count themselves lucky to blow out the candles on a single birthday cake\nbefore shuffling off their mortal coil. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not that you\u2019d particularly want to spend your birthday on Uranus.\nWith wind speeds that can reach 900km an hour and a surface temperature of -195\u02daC,\nyou\u2019d struggle to light the candles in the first place. And then there\u2019s the\nsmell: recent research suggests that Uranus\u2019 methane clouds probably smell like\nrotten eggs, or, for the more scatologically minded, a particularly noxious\nbout of flatulence. So maybe Uranus\u2019 bum-themed branding really does make sense\nafter all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Distance from sun: 1.8 billion miles (2.9 billion km), 19.8 astronomical\nunits<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One-way light-time to the sun: 165.2 minutes<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Length of\nday: 17 hours 14 minutes<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Length of\norbital year: 84 years<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Atmosphere: Hydrogen, helium & methane<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TOP\nTIP<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s\nno need to pack your sunglasses if you\u2019re planning on travelling to Saturn: sunlight\nis about 100 times fainter here than on Earth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

GETTING THERE & AWAY<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

With an average orbit of 1.8 billion miles (2.9 billion km)\nfrom the sun, Uranus is 19.8 astronomical units away (nearly 20 times further\nthan earth). At this distance, it takes a beam of sunlight 2 hours and 40\nminutes to reach Uranus. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So far, Voyager 2 is the only spacecraft to fly by Uranus.\nNo probes have orbited this distant planet to study it at length and up close.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I recently worked on probably my most out-of-this-world project yet – Lonely Planet’s guide to… The Universe! For the book I wrote chapters on Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Jupiter (with a little help from NASA), and covered some of the introductory sections too. You can read an extract below. Uranus Planet type: Ice Giant Number […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1509,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe Universe | Oliver Berry<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/oliverberry.com\/writing\/the-universe-oliver-berry\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Universe | Oliver Berry\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I recently worked on probably my most out-of-this-world project yet – Lonely Planet’s guide to… The Universe! 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