Uranus By: Maddie S. It takes 84 earth years for it to complete one orbit. It's radius is 400.1 miles. At its closest it orbits Uranus appeared to be 1.7 billion miles away. At its only a blue-green ball with farthest it orbits 1.9 billion miles a smooth surface. away. Uranus is too far away to see easily without a telescope. Uranus is the seventh planet Sometimes it is just bright from the sun. It orbits farther enough to see with the naked out, along Uranus's outer eye. ring. Uranus' high powered telescope at the Keck Observatory in Hawaii creates detailed images of Uranus. Each of Uranus' hemispheres receives 42 earth years of sunlight. Uranus' rings are a mix of large chunks of matter and fine particles of dust. One spacecraft has managed to visit Uranus but it took a little creativity to get it there. The rings orbiting Uranus are thinner than those orbiting other planets. Uranus has ten moons. Ariel is Uranus's brightest moon. The moons names are Juliet, Puck Cordelia, Ophelia, Bianca, Desdemona, Portia, Rosalind, Cressida, and Belinda. Umbriel is the darkest moon on Uranus. Uranus Uranus is so far away that for about 200 years scientists could not make out how quickly it turns on its axis. Most planets turn on their axis in such a way that they are almost upright as they move about the sun. It is the only planet with an axis tipped that way, so some think of it as a sideways planet. Like most planets, Uranus has its own natural satellites, or moons. These are smaller worlds that circle Uranus just as our moon circles the earth. In 1977, Uranus moved in front of a dim star..