Sky Watch: Uranus at Opposition

Today, Uranus is at opposition to the Sun. If you’ve read any of the other blogs about planets being at opposition this year, you know this means that Uranus is the closest to Earth and the brightest it will be in the night sky for 2019.

Fun Fact: After spending almost nine years positioned in the constellation of Pisces, the Fishes, Uranus entered Aries, the Ram, in April of 2018. The planet retrograded back into Pisces for a stint that year, before moving into Aries again in February of this year.

On average, Uranus reaches opposition to the Sun every 370 days (called its synodic period), and about four days later in each successive year. It orbits much farther out in the solar system than Earth, approximately nineteen times that of our planet. Uranus has a mass that is 14.5 times that of Earth, with a radius that is almost four times the size of ours.

I personally think Uranus is pretty darn cool – and one of my earliest blogs was actually about this gas giant, so if you’re curious about learning more, click here to give it a read!

xo
B