
2011 Skywatching Guide: Planets in the Solar System
Here's a look at how to observe the planets of the solar system in 2011.
Uranus is the seventh planet from the sun and the third-largest planet in the solar system. The blue-green gas giant has the coldest atmosphere of all the planets in the solar system. Uranus is the only planet in the solar system that orbits the sun on its side, and this extreme tilt is responsible for turning the planet's magnetic fields into a jumbled mess. So far only NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft has studied the planet up close during a flyby in 1986, but researchers are still studying the planet with telescopes on and around Earth.