There’s much to know about the pale blue planet affectionally known as Uranus. Did you know that Uranus was discovered on March 13, 1781, but had actually been seen many times before? If you want to find out more, check these Uranus Facts.

1. Uranus is the seventh planet from the sun and the first to be discovered by scientists.

2. Uranus orbits the Sun every 84 Earth years.

3. Uranus was the first planet discovered in modern times.

4. Uranus is the only planet that is named after a Greek god.

5. A lot of other names had been rejected in the naming of Uranus. Those included Hypercronius and Georgium Sidus.

6. The tilt of Uranus may have been caused by a collision.

7. Uranus is icy and burning hot, with extreme seasons.

8. The pressure on the surface is around 1.3 times more than the Earth and the gravity is about 0.9 times more than the Earth.

9. Uranus has 27 moons. Uranus has the third most moons in the solar system.

10. Titania is the largest moon of Uranus.

11. The brightest moon is Ariel while the darkest is Umbriel.

12. The intensity of sunlight is 1/400 the intensity of the sunlight on Earth.

13. Uranus is 14.5 times the mass of Earth.

14. In 1789, Martin Heinrich Klaproth, the discoverer of Uranium, named the element after Uranus.

15. Sunlight takes almost 2 hours and 40 minutes to reach Uranus.

16. Uranus has 13 rings, and all of them are very faint.

17. The size of the bodies in the rings varies between 0.2 and 20 m in diameter.

18. Uranus rotates on its side, it spins horizontally.

19. Uranus revolves in its orbit at a speed of 6.6 km/sec.

20. One day on Uranus spans 17 hours and 54 minutes.

21. Uranus’ axis is at a tilt of 98 degrees while Earth’s axis is at a tilt of 23.5 degrees.

22. Uranus is associated with the day “Wednesday.”

23. It is also the ruling sign of Zodiac “Aquarius.”

24. The correct pronunciation of Uranus is [YUR-uh-nus] not [Your Anus].

25. Seasons on Uranus can last as long as 20 years.

26. NASA’s Voyager 2 is the only spacecraft in the history of spaceflight that has made a close approach to Uranus.

27. Uranus is the coldest planetary atmosphere in the Solar System.

28. Methane, or natural gas, gives Uranus its blue color.

29. Uranus probably smells like rotten eggs.

30. Due to extremely high temperature and pressure, it rains diamonds on Uranus.

31. Uranus was the first planet discovered with a telescope.

32. Uranus maximum distance from the Sun is 3 billion km (1.88 billion miles).

33. Uranus minimum distance from the Earth is 2.6 billion km (1.6 billion miles).

34.  The name “Uranus” was first proposed by Bode.

35. Like the classical planets, Uranus is visible to the naked eye.

36. The diameter of Uranus is 51,488 km (32,000 miles).

37. The mean apparent magnitude of Uranus is 5.68 with a standard deviation of 0.17.

38. The standard model of Uranus’s structure is that it consists of three layers: silicate/iron–nickel core in the center, an icy mantle in the middle and an outer gaseous hydrogen/helium envelope.

39. The troposphere is the lowest and densest part of the atmosphere and is characterized by a decrease in temperature with altitude.

40. Uranus’s orbital elements were first calculated in 1783 by Pierre-Simon Laplace.