why does Uranus have rings?
435917
(m)\n\n the gas planets have rings, but the rings of Uranus are a very faint. The rings cannot be seen from Earth but the Voyager spacecraft showed them. Astronomers get a hint of the rings when they occasionally block the light of a star behind them. Even the Hubble Space Telescope cannot get a very good view of the rings. While the rings of Saturn are made up of fairly small pieces of bright white ices, the rings of Uranus seem to be made of larger chunks of very dark, rocky material. The darkness of the chunks may help explain why they cannot be seen from Earth.
991898
Easy question first, they are there because the gravitational pull of Saturn caused 2 or more objects to collide with enough velocity for the debri not to fall to saturn.\n\nNow the hard one, according to NASA:\n\n"Cassini found that the inner and outer parts of ring B contain rings that are hundreds of kilometers wide (hundreds of miles) and vary greatly in the amount of material they contain. A thick, 5,000-kilometer-wide (3,100-mile) core contains several bands with ring material that is nearly four times as dense as that of ring A and nearly 20 times as dense as that of ring C."
900262
Actually, I believe there are only two.  Venus and Uranus.  However I don't know about our Kuiper belt cousins, so perhaps the answer is in one of them.  Venus has a three degree roatation, and Uranus an eighty-two degree rotation.
126222
Hi.\n\nThere is every kind of life in Uranus, just we can't see them, because they are small.\n\nHave a nice day. :)
692440
can't count the stars but hear that there are many rings around Uranus....and maybe a few dingleberries too.
440171
Because of hydrogen bonding, it forms a hexgonal ring, and this creates space in the middle of the rings.  This space accounts for why water expands when in it's frozen state.
806334
It probably has orbited around uranus.
993320
Planets are not "round" but in fact "spherical".  Planets are spherical because gravity acts upon each part of the planet, pulling it closer to the center.  A sphere is the most efficient shape to contain the greatest volume with the smallest dimensions.  In the case of a sphere, the radius is a smaller distance from the center of the planet than any other shape could manage, thus, matter naturally forms this shape in the absence of other factors.\n\nIt is important to note that the planets were not always as cool and ridged as they are now.  When the planets were born, they were made of molten elements, and did not solidify until their shape had already taken.  In some other cases, where planets were formed through the collision of multiple bodies, the heat generated by the impact liquified sufficient amounts of the bodies for a spherical shape to form.
355607
No, Titan is a group of gods. The moons of Uranus are named from people in shakespears plays.\n\nAt first, the Greeks and Romans thought the planets were gods, since their positons moved seemingly at their will. So they named them Jupiter, Mars, etc. So the pattern stuck. Most moons and planets are named after mythological figures.\n\nNOTE: Pluto is -not- named after a cartoon dog, but after the mythical god of the underworld.
326156
Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and is the largest one in the solar system. If Jupiter were hollow, more than one thousand Earths could fit inside. It also contains more matter than all of the other planets combined. It has a mass of 1.9 x 1027 kg and is 142,800 kilometers (88,736 miles) across the equator. Jupiter possesses 28 known satellites, four of which - Callisto, Europa, Ganymede and Io - were observed by Galileo as long ago as 1610. Another 12 satellites have been recently discovered and given provisional designators until they are officially confirmed and named. There is a ring system, but it is very faint and is totally invisible from the Earth. (The rings were discovered in 1979 by Voyager 1.) The atmosphere is very deep, perhaps comprising the whole planet, and is somewhat like the Sun. It is composed mainly of hydrogen and helium, with small amounts of methane, ammonia, water vapor and other compounds. At great depths within Jupiter, the pressure is so great that the hydrogen atoms are broken up and the electrons are freed so that the resulting atoms consist of bare protons. This produces a state in which the hydrogen becomes metallic. \nColorful latitudinal bands, atmospheric clouds and storms illustrate Jupiter's dynamic weather systems. The cloud patterns change within hours or days. The Great Red Spot is a complex storm moving in a counter-clockwise direction. At the outer edge, material appears to rotate in four to six days; near the center, motions are small and nearly random in direction. An array of other smaller storms and eddies can be found through out the banded clouds. \n\nAuroral emissions, similar to Earth's northern lights, were observed in the polar regions of Jupiter. The auroral emissions appear to be related to material from Io that spirals along magnetic field lines to fall into Jupiter's atmosphere. Cloud-top lightning bolts, similar to superbolts in Earth's high atmosphere, were also observed. \n\nJupiter's Ring\nUnlike Saturn's intricate and complex ring patterns, Jupiter has a simple ring system that is composed of an inner halo, a main ring and a Gossamer ring. To the Voyager spacecraft, the Gossamer ring appeared to be a single ring, but Galileo imagery provided the unexpected discovery that Gossamer is really two rings. One ring is embedded within the other. The rings are very tenuous and are composed of dust particles kicked up as interplanetary meteoroids smash into Jupiter's four small inner moons Metis, Adrastea, Thebe, and Amalthea. Many of the particles are microscopic in size. \n\nThe innermost halo ring is toroidal in shape and extends radially from about 92,000 kilometers (57,000 miles) to about 122,500 kilometers (76,000 miles) from Jupiter's center. It is formed as fine particles of dust from the main ring's inner boundary 'bloom' outward as they fall toward the planet. The main and brightest ring extends from the halo boundary out to about 128,940 kilometers (80,000 miles) or just inside the orbit of Adrastea. Close to the orbit of Metis, the main ring's brightness decreases. \n\nThe two faint Gossamer rings are fairly uniform in nature. The innermost Amalthea Gossamer ring extends from the orbit of Adrastea out to the orbit of Amalthea at 181,000 kilometers (112,000 miles) from Jupiter's center. The fainter Thebe Gossamer ring extends from Amalthea's orbit out to about Thebe's orbit at 221,000 kilometers (136,000 miles). \n\nJupiter's rings and moons exist within an intense radiation belt of electrons and ions trapped in the planet's magnetic field. These particles and fields comprise the jovian magnetosphere or magnetic environment, which extends 3 to 7 million kilometers (1.9 to 4.3 million miles) toward the Sun, and stretches in a windsock shape at least as far as Saturn's orbit - a distance of 750 million kilometers (466 million miles). \n\nJupiter Statistics \nMass (kg) 1.900e+27 \nMass (
45221
The inner planets are called the terrestrial planets and are defined by being small rocky bodies with small atmospheres if any at all.  The outer planets are called the jovian planets and are defined by being large in size with giant gas atmospheres.  Due to their mass they tend to have many moons and a ring system (all four do).  \n\nWhat mainly gives rise to this difference is twofold. \n1. Temperature\n2. Chemical differentiation\n\nSince the gas giants are so cold they are able to retain more of an atmosphere since the slower moving gases in them are less able to escape gravity.\nAlso, as the solar system formed heavy element "sank" to the inner portions of the solar disk while lighter elements were left behind to the outer regions to collect into the giant planets.\n\nInside the gas giants is a rocky type core but this is encased in the giant atmospheric envelope that surrounds them.\n\nThis is the short of it.
209591
From our small world we have gazed upon the cosmic ocean for thousands of years. Ancient astronomers observed points of light that appeared to move among the stars. They called these objects planets, meaning wanderers, and named them after Roman deities - Jupiter, king of the gods; Mars, the god of war; Mercury, messenger of the gods; Venus, the god of love and beauty, and Saturn, father of Jupiter and god of agriculture. The stargazers also observed comets with sparkling tails, and meteors or shooting stars apparently falling from the sky.\n\nSince the invention of the telescope, three more planets have been discovered in our solar system: Uranus (1781), Neptune (1846), and Pluto (1930). In addition, there are thousands of small bodies such as asteroids and comets. Most of the asteroids orbit in a region between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, while the home of comets lies far beyond the orbit of Pluto, in the Oort Cloud.\n\nThe four planets closest to the Sun - Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars - are called the terrestrial planets because they have solid rocky surfaces. The four large planets beyond the orbit of Mars - Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune - are called gas giants. Tiny, distant, Pluto has a solid but icier surface than the terrestrial planets.\n\nNearly every planet - and some of the moons - has an atmosphere. Earth's atmosphere is primarily nitrogen and oxygen. Venus has a thick atmosphere of carbon dioxide, with traces of poisonous gases such as sulfur dioxide. Mars' carbon dioxide atmosphere is extremely thin. Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune are primarily hydrogen and helium. When Pluto is near the Sun, it has a thin atmosphere, but when Pluto travels to the outer regions of its orbit, the atmosphere freezes and collapses to the planet's surface. In that way, Pluto acts like a comet.\n\nThere are 154 known natural satellites (also called moons) in orbit around the various planets in our solar system, ranging from bodies larger than our own Moon to small pieces of debris. Many of these were discovered by planetary spacecraft. Some of these have moons have atmospheres (Saturn's Titan); some even have magnetic fields (Jupiter's Ganymede). Jupiter's moon Io is the most volcanically active body in the solar system. An ocean may lie beneath the frozen crust of Jupiter's moon Europa, while images of Jupiter's moon Ganymede show historical motion of icy crustal plates. Some planetary moons may actually be asteroids that were captured by a planet's gravity. The captured asteroids presently counted as moons may include Phobos and Deimos, several satellites of Jupiter, Saturn's Phoebe, many of Uranus' new satellites, and possibly Neptune's Nereid.\n\nFrom 1610 to 1977, Saturn was thought to be the only planet with rings. We now know that Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune also have ring systems, although Saturn's is by far the largest. Particles in these ring systems range in size from dust to boulders to house sized, and may be rocky and/or icy.\n\nMost of the planets also have magnetic fields which extend into space and form a magnetosphere around each planet. These magnetospheres rotate with the planet, sweeping charged particles with them. The Sun has a magnetic field, the heliosphere, which envelops our entire solar system.\n\nAncient astronomers believed that the Earth was the center of the Universe, and that the Sun and all the other stars revolved around the Earth. Copernicus proved that Earth and the other planets in our solar system orbit our Sun. Little by little, we are charting the Universe, and an obvious question arises: Are there other planets where life might exist? Only recently have astronomers had the tools to indirectly detect large planets around other stars in nearby solar systems.\n\nSo basically the inner plantes have solid ground. The outer are made of gas except pluto.\n-good luck
618960
It was formed from the ring of dust and debris orbiting the sun when the sun gained enough mass to start the fusion process.  It was formed in the same way and at the same time as all the other planets.
245435
If you need exact numbers, then you will have problems. How exactly do you define a ring? \n\nRoughly speaking, from references,\n\nSaturn 7 major rings; 15 named rings\nJupiter 3 rings\nNeptune 4 rings\nUranus 11 rings\n\nThis gives a total of 25 rings. However, look at some of the pictures in the references. If one counts more minor rings, there are a lot more than 25 total rings. According to the last reference, Saturn alone has literally thousands of rings, and the total number is unknown.
348014
The particles that make up the rings of Saturn don’t get pulled down to the planet because they orbit the planet.  They remain in orbit for the same reason the Moon or the Space Shuttle remain in orbit around Earth.  In fact, you can think of them as billions of tiny “moonlets”:  they don’t sit still but instead revolve around the planet in predictable (although often complicated) orbits.\n\nAny orbit is a balance between gravity and the motion of the orbiting body.  Objects close to the parent body must orbit more quickly to counteract the stronger pull of gravity—for example, Mercury moves faster in its orbit around the Sun than Earth does—but any orbit constitutes an equilibrium between gravity and momentum.\n\nThat said, Saturn’s rings represent a complicated example of this kind of equilibrium.  Not only does one have to consider the gravitational attraction of Saturn itself, but also of its major moons (Titan, for exampl) and all the aforementioned “moonlets” spinning around the planet.  The results are often surprising:  we see “shepherd” moons that keep rings herded in place, strange propeller-like structures, and even braided rings!  (Links below to some images of these oddities.)\n\nBut the short answer to your question is that the rings, made up of billions of particles, remain constantly in motion, counteracting the pull of gravity.\n\n\nRyan Wyatt\nRose Center for Earth & Space
624977
Uranus was the first planet to be discovered that was not known in ancient times; although it had been observed on many previous occasions, it was always mistakenly identified as a star. The earliest recorded sighting was in 1690 when John Flamsteed catalogued it as 34 Tauri. Flamsteed observed Uranus twice again. Sir William Herschel formally discovered the planet on March 13, 1781, but reported it on April 26, 1781, as a "comet."\n\nHerschel originally named it Georgium Sidus (George's Star) in honour of King George III of Great Britain. When it was pointed out that sidus means star and not planet, he rebaptised it the Georgian Planet. This name was not acceptable outside of Britain. Lalande proposed in 1784 to name it Herschel, at the same time that he created the planet's symbol ("a globe surmounted by your initial"); his proposal was readily adopted by French astronomers. Prosperin, of Uppsala, proposed the names Astraea, Cybele, and Neptune (now borne by two asteroids and a planet). Lexell, of St. Petersburg, compromised with George III's Neptune and Great-Britain's Neptune. Bernoulli, from Berlin, suggested Hypercronius and Transaturnis. Lichtenberg, from Göttingen, chimed in with Austräa, a goddess mentioned by Ovid (but who is traditionally associated with Virgo). The name Minerva was also proposed. Finally, Bode, as editor of the Berliner Astronomisches Jahrbuch, opted for Uranus, after Latinized version of the Greek god of the sky, Ouranos; Maximilian Hell followed suit by using it in the first ephemeris, published in Vienna. Examination of earliest issues of Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society from 1827 shows that the name Uranus was already the most common name used even by British astronomers by then, and probably earlier. The name Georgium Sidus or "the Georgian" were still used infrequently (by the British alone) thereafter. The final holdout was HM Nautical Almanac Office, which did not switch to Uranus until 1850.\n\nIn the Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese languages, the planet's name is literally translated as the sky king star (天王星).\n\nHope that's not too long for you!!\n\nP.S. I don't believe your claim that a professor wants a paper on a Saturday. I think you're curious, and impatient, and wanted to know sooner rather than later. It's OK to be curious as long as you own up to it. I'm not saying I'm sure you were lying, but I've got a hunch. Just don't be self-conscious about wanting information.
108831
Like the other gas planets, Uranus has bands of clouds that blow around rapidly. But they are extremely faint, visible only with radical image enhancement .