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Ideas for a Science Fair Project on Uranus

Uranus might be best known for bawdy jokes based on wordplay with its name, but our solar system's seventh planet has plenty of features to serve as foundations for science fair projects. It's close enough to be easily spotted but distant and foreign enough to remain exotic. Students can research the planet's structure, its discovery or the odd tilt that makes it spin on its side, like a rolling pin. To avoid giggles, they can adopt the widely accepted but often ignored pronunciation of its name: YOOR-a-nus.

Modeling Uranus
- Younger students can create a model of Uranus and its 21 known moons. Use baked clay or a large Styrofoam ball, painted aqua, to create the planet, and mark the moons with long and short pins to differentiate the inner and outer moons. More advanced students can include Uranus' ring system and axis, unique in the solar system as Uranus is tilted onto its side. Students should research and include fact sheets on some of Uranus' basic properties: its composition, atmosphere, average temperature, distance from the sun and size relative to other planets. Students also should detail the properties of Uranus' five largest moons: Ariel, Umbriel, Titania, Oberon and Miranda.
Discovering Uranus
- Under optimal viewing conditions, Uranus is the most distant planet observable by the naked eye, and it's easy to see with a good set of binoculars or a simple telescope. Students can observe Uranus over the course of several weeks, noting its position in the sky nightly. A sky map from astronomy publications such as "Sky & Telescope" can help students find the planet, or they can partner with a local planetarium and use a more powerful telescope to see better details. Discovered in 1779, Uranus was the first planet to be found that was not known in ancient times. Students should research the difference in movements of planets and stars and what allowed astronomer William Herschel to designate it a planet. More advanced students can research movement irregularities that ultimately led to the discovery of Neptune.
Life on Uranus
- Students can research why life, at least as we know it, is nearly impossible on Uranus. Since we cannot send probes into Uranus' thick atmosphere and deep oceans of methane and ammonia, how do we rule out life on the planet? Students should learn the basic needs for life and why Uranus is inhospitable to it. They should take note of the extreme temperatures, lack of sunlight and enormous pressure within the planet. Students also should research life that exists in the harshest conditions that we know--the Earth's ocean floor, for example--and whether there's a chance for such life to exist under even harsher conditions.
Explaining the Tilt
- Scientists still aren't sure why Uranus spins on its side, but they've developed a number of theories around it. Students can research some of the leading theories: a collision with a large object, an imbalance from a now lost giant moon or a simple formation abnormality. Students can note the evidence for and against each theory and come to their own conclusion. They also should report the effect the tilt has on Uranus' seasons as it rotates around the sun.

Astronomy