Near and Distant Neighbors
Our near neighbor, the moon or Luna, found itself sulking in earth's shadow on October 8, 2014.
When in shadow, it became possible to see our most distant neighbor that is visible to the naked eye: Uranus (lower left).
Uranus takes 84 years to orbit the sun, but has a 17 hour rotation period. Unlike all the other planets in our Solar system, Uranus's axis of rotation is tilted 97 degrees and as a result those in the northern hemisphere of Uranus experience 42 earth years of darkness followed by 42 years of sunlight. Oh, and wind on Uranus reaches over 500 mph.
We got it good here on earth!
Near and Distant Neighbors
Our near neighbor, the moon or Luna, found itself sulking in earth's shadow on October 8, 2014.
When in shadow, it became possible to see our most distant neighbor that is visible to the naked eye: Uranus (lower left).
Uranus takes 84 years to orbit the sun, but has a 17 hour rotation period. Unlike all the other planets in our Solar system, Uranus's axis of rotation is tilted 97 degrees and as a result those in the northern hemisphere of Uranus experience 42 earth years of darkness followed by 42 years of sunlight. Oh, and wind on Uranus reaches over 500 mph.
We got it good here on earth!