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How fast are winds on Uranus?
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Uranus
Two views of the southern hemisphere of Uranus, produced from images obtained by Voyager 2 on Jan. 17, 1986. In colours visible to the unaided human eye, Uranus is a bland, nearly featureless sphere (left). In a colour-enhanced view processed to bring out low-contrast details, Uranus shows the banded cloud structure common to the four giant planets (right). From the polar perspective of Voyager at the time, the bands appear concentric around the planet's rotational axis, which is pointing nearly toward the Sun. Small ring-shaped features in the right image are artifacts arising from dust in the spacecraft's camera.
The winds on Uranus are significantly stronger than those on Earth. These atmospheric motions, which occur relative to the planet's rotation, vary by latitude and direction:1
- Equatorial Latitudes: Winds are retrograde (moving in the opposite direction of the planet's rotation) at a speed of 110 meters per second (400 km or 250 miles per hour).1
- High Latitudes: At a latitude of 55° S, winds are prograde (moving in the direction of the planet's rotation) at a speed of 200 meters per second (720 km or 450 miles per hour).1
These wind speeds were determined by tracking small atmospheric storms, as the planet otherwise appears nearly featureless. Because Uranus lacks a solid surface, these winds represent the movement of the atmosphere itself.1