document_title: List of My Name Is Earl characters

question_text: who plays earl's dad in my name is earl

question_tokens: who plays earl 's dad in my name is earl

text: List of My Name Is Earl characters

text: Main characters[edit]

text: Earl Hickey[edit]

text: Earl Jehosephat Hickey[a] (played by Jason Lee)[i] — The titular and viewpoint character, he has a long history of petty crimes and other repugnant acts of bullying classmates and taking advantage of others. In the opening episode, he wins a lottery scratcher but is immediately hit by a car; during his recovery where he watches a Carson Daly interview where the latter talks about karma, he realizes he has been a bad person and tries to turn his life around by making a list of all the bad things he has done and doing the good deeds to cross them off the list. He discovers that when he does good things, he is rewarded by karma, first by getting the lottery ticket back. But when he ignores the list, as especially demonstrated in the episode "The Professor", bad things continue to happen. One of the recurring gags regarding Earl is that he always has his eyes closed when his picture is taken. He has a mustache and tends to wear flannel shirts, although in his past, he also wears concert T-shirts from classic rock bands. He drives a 1973 red El Camino[2] that once belonged to his friend Frank: it has a blue driver's side door, found in a tornado. Earl's father Carl intended to name him after himself, but put in an extra loop on his cursive letter 'C' on the birth certificate.

text: Randy Hickey[edit]

text: Randall Doo Hickey[a] (played by Ethan Suplee)[ii] – Earl's younger brother. He and Earl used to commit a bunch of crimes together, but he goes along with Earl on his list. In "Monkeys in Space", when he tries to get a job, Earl finds that he is unable to fulfill his list item in time until Randy helps him. In the episode "Number One", he breaks down and questions the entire process. His character was initially described as equally nasty and tough but after Earl started working on the list, he becomes naive, childlike, and simplistic.[4] In "Harassed a Reporter" he is upset that the reporter portrayed him as mentally retarded, but when she mentions that it could be karma, he is happy that karma noticed him and considered him important.

text: Randy has a crush on Catalina, calling dibs on her when they first met. He dated a woman who liked cats in the episode "Larceny of a Kitty Cat", despite being allergic to them. Although he is afraid of birds, especially chickens, he is willing to forgo that for love as shown in "South of the Border (Part 1)", and in part 2, they get married at Catalina's village. In the episode "Foreign Exchange Student" he finally tells Catalina he loves her, but Catalina intentionally makes herself repulsive when they consummate the marriage later that night, after which Randy doesn't want to live with her anymore and just keeps it a green card marriage.

text: In season 3, after finding that he is unable to function independently, he gets a job as a warden at the same state prison so he can hang out with Earl. In the episode "Creative Writing", Earl remarks that a psychologist had called Randy "borderline artistic". In the "Inside Probe" episodes, Geraldo Rivera describes him as the town simpleton and reveals he has 77 misdemeanors like his brother.

text: Joy Turner[edit]

text: Joy Farrah Turner (née Darville, also Joy Hickey) (played by Jaime Pressly) is Earl's ex-wife who divorces him in the first episode and then marries his friend Darnell during the first season of the series. She is pessimistic, cold-hearted, stubborn and vain. Joy is the mother of two boys, Dodge and Earl Jr. She drives a Subaru BRAT painted with the American flag.[5] Her catchphrases are "Oh, snap!", "What the hell", and she frequently calls both Earl and Randy "Dummy". She is openly scornful of Earl's List, and has a strong dislike for Catalina, although she ends up saving her life in the fourth season.

text: The episodes "The Bounty Hunter" and "Guess Who's Coming Out of Joy" cover parts of Joy's past. When she was pregnant with her first child, she was kicked out of her parents' house in the neighboring town of Nathanville. She looked for a sugar daddy, dating local celebrity TV's Tim Stack briefly. She and her friends get Earl drunk, after which they have a shotgun wedding in Las Vegas and move into a trailer at the Pimmit Hills Trailer Park. She would often go along with Earl, Randy, Ralph, Donny and others on their crime sprees. She has an affair with Darnell but when she becomes pregnant with her second child, she convinces Earl that he is the father. Some years later, at the start of the series, she and Earl divorce, but after he signs the papers, he wins the lottery money. Joy then tries some schemes to get her share, but eventually gives up. She then marries Darnell in the episode "Joy's Wedding". Although she is rather selfish and frugal, she cares deeply for her boys.

text: In the second season, Joy gets in trouble with the law when she was trying to return an entertainment system cabinet and ended up stealing a truck with a store employee in it. Her charges of grand theft auto, kidnapping, and assault would count as the third strike, which would put her in prison for life. She is appointed a deaf lawyer (Marlee Matlin), who gets her involved with an addiction recovery group for her anger, and also prescribes happy pills. Hoping to evoke sympathy from the jury, Joy agrees to be a surrogate mother for her half-sister Liberty. The trial goes well until Earl's 911 calls are presented. However, Earl then confesses to all the crimes and takes the punishment.

text: The third season has Joy being pregnant while taking care of Randy until the latter becomes a warden at the prison that Earl is staying. She gives birth to the baby for Liberty and Ray Ray's family. Joy believed throughout the show that Little Chubby was the father of Dodge and Darnell was the father of Earl Jr. It is revealed in 'Dodges Dad' that Earl is the biological father of Dodge, but Earl Jr.'s father is never named because of the shows cancellation.

text: Catalina [edit]

text: Catalina Rana Aruca[iii] (played by Nadine Velazquez)—The beautiful housekeeper at Earl and Randy's motel. Randy has a major crush on Catalina, immediately calling dibs on her when they first met. She was the top dancer at Club Chubby for about a month, where her routine simply consisted of jumping in place to House of Pain's "Jump Around" song, until one of the patrons died, at which she vowed never to dance again. She dislikes Joy, but later returns to Club Chubby in the season 2 episode "Jump for Joy" when she sees how Earl tries hard to make things better. She also helps Earl on one of the items on his list in the episode "Mailbox". Season 2 features a story arc where Catalina is arrested for speeding and deported to her village. When Earl and Randy arrive, she gets news that Earl has agreed to marry her, but Earl lets Randy do it. In the "Foreign Exchange Student" episode, Randy and Catalina rent an apartment in order to keep up appearances, but when Randy tells her he loves her, Catalina tells Earl she only wants to be friends with Randy. She takes actions to be as physically repulsive as possible when Randy and she consummate their marriage, but afterwards regrets it as she finds that Randy is the best lover she's had. In the season 3 episode "Love Octagon", she declares that she is a new lesbian, but her attempts to woo Billie Cunningham fail.

text: Catalina was born in the small town of Guadalatucky,[a] a Latin American village stricken with violence and poverty. She was prompted by her lover Paco to come to America. She is placed in a crate and inside a car. In the season 4 flashback episode, "Earl and Joy's Anniversary", when she was trapped in the phone booth with some Africanized bees outside, she said she was from La Paz, and lost her virginity in a foursome with Darnell, Patty, and Kenny. She occasionally wires money to her family in the village. In the episode "Kept a Guy Locked in a Truck", it is revealed she lives in a shared laundry room at the motel..

text: In some episodes, Catalina breaks the fourth wall with her Spanish lines: In the episode "Barn Burner", she thanks the Latino audience for turning in every week.[b] In the episode "Number One", her quipping at Joy translates to thanking the audience and hoping they will see them next fall.[c]

text: Darnell Turner [edit]

text: Darnell Turner (played by Eddie Steeples)—Joy's husband, and still one of Earl's best friends despite apparently impregnating Earl's then-wife Joy. He now acts as "New Daddy" to Joy's two sons. He works in the local dive, "The Crab Shack". Whenever Earl greets Darnell, he calls him "Crab Man" (or "Crabman"), and he has a generally friendly disposition. In the episode "Y2K", it is revealed that he used to go by the name Harry Monroe, until he was placed in a witness protection program where he was to assume his new identity of Darnell Turner and was told to avoid liking cheese (which he still likes). He has a pet turtle whom he calls Mr. Turtle.

text: Part of the season 4 episodes go into Darnell's history where he was raised and trained by his father Thomas Monroe (played by Danny Glover) in a secret government agency, and had developed the skills to be a top secret agent. However, when he refused to kill a nine-year-old leader of a socialist nation, and after testifying in court against his former employers, the government had to place him in witness protection from the agency. His cover is blown when he was shown on national television restraining Joy at a game show audition, so he, Joy, and their kids had to go under protection and assume other identities and live elsewhere. He agrees to join his father on one more mission, taking along Earl and sedating him multiple times, to free himself from having to need protection.

text: In the episode "Our 'Cops' Is On" it is shown that he used to live with his supposed grandmother and grew and sold marijuana in his bedroom. In "Buried Treasure", he narrates that he graduated college at age 14, was a virtuoso cellist, and could identify 254 varieties of cheese. Darnell speaks multiple languages: In "The Frank Factor" he tells Catalina that he speaks French, Russian and Arabic. He is also seen reading a newspaper printed in another language. In "My Name Is Alias", Joy remarks that he knows 7 different languages, and 3 combat sports that ends in "do." Occasionally, Darnell's afro is shown to hide cell phones which self-destruct after use. It is mentioned in season 4 he might have had a brother, and that his sister Pam died.

text: It is revealed in the very last episode of the show that Earl Jr., generally believed to be his son, is not.

text: Relatives of the protagonists[edit]

text: Dodge Hickey[edit]

text: Dodge Hickey (played by Louis T. Moyle) is Joy's oldest son. Joy was six months pregnant with him when she and Earl got married the day after they met. In the pilot, Earl tells us "Joy didn't remember much about the boy's real father, except that he drove a Ford. So we named him Dodge." His middle name is Chaz, named after Earl's childhood hero, astronaut Chaz Dalton. His biological father was the subject of several episodes: Frank was a possibility in "The Frank Factor", and in the season 4 finale "Dodge's Dad", Camden's biggest business owner Little Chubby was another possibility, but DNA tests later revealed Earl to be the biological father.

text: Earl Hickey, Jr.[edit]

text: Earl Hickey, Jr. (played by Trey Carlisle) is Joy and Darnell's son. After introducing Dodge in the pilot, Earl explains, "A few years later we were having our first child from my own personal seed. Doctors had already told us he was going to come out a boy, so we went ahead and named him." But as the doctor holds up a newborn mixed-race baby, Earl gets a confused look on his face and finishes: "There he was — Earl Junior." He has a huge afro and is frequently seen playing rambunctiously with his half-brother, Dodge. Originally thought to be Darnell's child, a DNA test in the season 4 finale "Dodge's Dad" revealed that Darnell was not Earl Jr.'s father. Greg Garcia said that he and the writers had planned to make Earl Jr's dad someone famous, but because the show was cancelled, they never got a chance to figure it out.[6]

text: Carl Hickey[edit]

text: Carlton Hickey (played by Beau Bridges) is Earl and Randy's father. He first appears in "Cost Dad the Election" where he had run for mayor but lost because of Earl's shenanigans that got the latter arrested. He originally ran for mayor because of the airport flight path was directed over his residential area, causing his entire house to vibrate several times a day, which angers him very much. He is sorely disappointed in his sons and refused to have anything to do with Earl. However, he gradually realizes his son's efforts to improve his life were sincere and he and Earl are able to mend their relationship. In the episode "Dad's Car", he says that he had originally planned to name Earl after himself, but had put in an extra loop on the "C" when using cursive writing on the birth certificate.

text: Kay Hickey [edit]

text: Katherine "Kay" Hickey (played by Nancy Lenehan) is Earl and Randy's mother. She is also disappointed in Earl but is more tolerant than Carl. She is happy Earl is trying to turn his life around. She spends a lot of time dealing with Carl's battered ego. Earl's friend Ralph attempted unsuccessfully to come on to her after learning Earl had slept with Ralph's mother.

text: Liberty Washington[edit]

text: Liberty Washington (played by Tamala Jones) is Joy's mixed race half-sister, introduced in the season 2 episode "Blow". They had hated each other since grade school. She aspires to be a pro wrestler. She is married to Ray Ray. She and Joy eventually bond to the point where Joy became a surrogate mother for Liberty and her husband Ray Ray's baby. She and Ray Ray insist that Joy follow certain dietary restrictions and have a natural childbirth.

text: Ray Ray Washington[edit]

text: Ray Ray Washington (played by DJ Qualls) is Liberty's husband, who shares many character traits with Darnell. He owns a bearded dragon named "Mr. Bearded Dragon" whom he treats in the same fatherly manner that Darnell treats Mr. Turtle. His father's name was "Ray" and named him "Ray-Ray", that is why he would like to name his unborn child "Ray-Ray-Ray". In 'Midnight Bun', Joy gives birth to their daughter Ray Ray Ray Anne, after she acts as a surrogate for Liberty and Ray Ray due to Liberty wanting to have a wrestling career.

text: Billie Cunningham[edit]

text: Billie Cunningham (played by Alyssa Milano) is a young woman who first appears in the season 3 episode "Frank's Girl". She had graduated from community college when she met Frank Stump and joined Frank in a life of crime, robbing stores and other places. During a conjugal visit, Earl informs her that Frank got placed in solitary confinement again, which prompts her to break up with Frank, especially when she finds out he had shared with Earl a nude picture of her. Earl convinces Billie to give Frank a second chance, but learns that since Frank has been in prison, Billie has been getting her life back together and enrolled in nursing school. Not wanting her to be sabotaged by the relationship, Earl has Frank break up with her.

text: It was later revealed that Billie had gone back to her criminal ways, quitting nursing school, stealing her cousin's rent money and gas, and robbing a liquor store. She crashes into Earl with her car but then gets hit by a car herself when going for help. After some time in the hospital, Officer Stuart Daniels, who had hit her with the car, looks after her, telling her that she had killed Earl and needed to lay low at his place. While Earl is in a coma, he imagines Billie as his loving housewife in a television sitcom called The Hickeys. After seeing Stuart, Frank, Earl, and Catalina (who was trying to be a lesbian and coming onto her), she eventually chooses Earl and they get married. She attempts to make her own list, but only does a half effort on it. With her insurance settlement, she controls the finances in the marriage but becomes very frugal with Earl. In the season 3 finale, she gets very jealous of Earl spending so much time with his list, and makes him choose between her and the list. However, the police catch up to her and she escapes into an Amish-type settlement near Camden, where she finds inner peace. She not only divorces Earl but also gives him $72,000, what was left of her insurance settlement.

text: Earl's friends and acquaintances[edit]

text: Kenny James[edit]

text: Kenneth James (played by Gregg Binkley, played as a child by Andy Pessoa) is a former victim of Earl's bullying as a child, Kenny is one of the first items on his list that Earl attempts to fix by helping him come out as homosexual and restoring his confidence. As a result, the two became friends and Kenny helps Earl with completing his list whenever he can, usually to his comedic detriment.[d] He has a job as an assistant manager of a copy shop, which he uses to his advantage, such as printing fake birth certificates and résumés. He drives a powder blue Le Car which he also uses to help out Earl.[e] In the episode "Stole P's HD Cart", he helped Earl and the gang get jobs at a hot dog company by passing their typing exams. After his boyfriend dumped him, Kenny asked Earl to help him become more of a manly man, which unwittingly led to both of them having a gambling addiction. He joins Joy's addiction recovery group. In the flashback episode "Our Cops Is On", he had prepared his house to receive officer Stuart Daniels. In "Our Other Cops Is On", he won a ride-along with a cop prize in a silent auction and got to hang out with Officer Daniels for the day. During the flashback episodes, when the camera is on him, he tries to act masculine and heterosexual. He is one of the few people in Camden who uses the World Wide Web at home. At the end of the third season, he and Daniels become lovers.

text: Patty, the daytime hooker [edit]

text: Patricia Michelle Weezmer[a] (played by Dale Dickey) is a middle-aged prostitute in Camden County. She prefers to work during the daytime, exchanging sexual favors and other fetishes such as piggyback rides or massages at a major discount and often getting paid in fast food. She is often arrested. In the evening, she works as a waitress (episode "Monkeys Take a Bath") and has been involved in community theatre (episode "Inside Probe, Part 1"). She has also spent time outside of Camden: in her early 20s she was in Calcutta (episode "Number One"), and she also lived in La Paz, the same city as Catalina. (episode "Earl and Joy's Anniversary"). In the episode "Inside Probe, Part 1", it is revealed she was half-Cherokee and lived on an Indian reservation before her mother divorced her father, Chasing Squirrel.

text: Ralph Mariano[edit]

text: Ralph Mariano (played by Giovanni Ribisi, played as a child by Tanner Maguire) is a former partner in crime and good friend of Earl's, who goes in and out of jail on an almost weekly basis. He and Earl have been friends since childhood, when Earl first taught Ralph how to steal. He isn't the most observant person in the world and doesn't quite understand the whole karma lifestyle. Following in Earl's footsteps, he attempts to clean up his act by getting a job at a lamp store, only to go back to stealing the same day because he didn't win the lottery.[e] A dedicated criminal, he will do anything for $200. He has a sister who dances at Club Chubby. He also once started a short-lived rock band along with Earl and Randy. He has several tattoos, including a Yin Yang on his forearm (which was put there because he thought it was 'two tadpoles doin' it') and 'two cougars doin' it' on his ankle. He only has nine toes following an incident where he cut his pinky toe off to put in a hotdog, forcing a huge hotdog franchise pay a settlement, which was used to rebuild the local hotdog stand that he was once paid by them to burn down in the episode Stole P's HD Cart. After learning that Earl had once slept with his mother, Ralph makes him marry her to "make an honest woman" out of her in the episode Van Hickey. When Earl is sentenced to 2 years in Camden County Prison, Ralph is his cellmate, only to escape the next day by drilling a hole behind a Dolly Parton poster, make a dummy with a watermelon for the head, and leaving Earl behind. He explains in his letter that he would have let Earl come with him but he was hungry and ate the second watermelon. He is also mentioned in 'Bounty Hunter' as having a bounty for $1200 for larceny of a dog and resisting arrest.

text: Donny Jones[edit]

text: Donny Jones (played by Silas Weir Mitchell) is a friend of Earl's and a former criminal who had been wrongly convicted of attempted robbery (Earl used Donny's shirt in the robbery). During his prison sentence of two years, he began reading the Bible and found Jesus. Once Earl confessed to Donny about committing the crime, Donny forgave him on the basis he would have eventually gone to prison anyway. He has two tattoos: one of Jesus on his chest, from which he occasionally seeks advice; and one on his buttocks of Moses parting the Red Sea.[f] He also appeared in the flashback episode "Y2K" where he was part of Earl's group that took over a department store. Even though Donny has now reformed he still intimidates people, mainly Earl, because he has "crazy eyes" and a towering stature. In "Quit Smoking", Earl says often that "Donny is crazy."

text: Nescobar-A-Lop-Lop[edit]

text: Nescobar-A-Lop-Lop (played by Abdoulaye N'Gom) is an African immigrant appearing in the episode "Teacher Earl" as a student in Earl's English language class. Like other class members, he proudly greets Earl with his first English phrase: "My. Name. Is. Earl.", but then uses that as a greeting. In addition to Earl's class, he picks up much of his English from watching American television, and uses the catchphrase "Seacrest. Out.". In "The Birthday Party" when Earl asks him how the English lessons are coming, Nescobar replies "I speak better than you, bitch!" In the season 2 episode "Born a Gamblin' Man", he is part of Joy's addiction recovery group where he is addicted to stealing pens, this becoming a recurring gag in later episodes. At Joy's trial, he helps Joy's lawyer by translating the sign language interpreter's Mandarin Chinese words.[iv]

text: Jasper[edit]

text: Jasper (played by J. Lamont Pope) runs a fencing operation out of a self storage unit, selling merchandise stolen from the local mall at a discount rate. He has a Russian mail-order bride named Tatiana (played by Jessica Cauffiel) who apparently lives in the storage unit and does not like kissing him. She has a large mole on her chin.

text: Frank Stump[edit]

text: Frank Stump (played by Michael Rapaport) is an old friend of Earl and Randy's that is introduced in the episode "The Frank Factor". He was subletting rooms in his trailer and agreed to have Earl and Randy stay in the kitchen area while his other roommate Paco had the living room. He was also formerly employed at the Crab Shack. However, he had also made a living stealing things and was saving up for guns to pull off a robbery at an Indian casino. The robbery went off without a hitch, but during the getaway, Paco accidentally hits an FBI van. He is serving a 20-year sentence. His trailer is then occupied by Joy and Earl, and his El Camino is used by Earl. In the episode "Frank's Girl", he has been dating young woman named Billie who had graduated from community college and joined him in a life of crime, but after missing a conjugal visit and being convinced by Earl, he agrees to part ways with her. In "Randy in Charge", he joins a group of prisoners to give a Scared Straight! talk at a school, but when Randy sends the two other convicts to buy ice cream and has to check on them, he escapes. In the next episode "Midnight Bun", he returns to his trailer where he had hidden a gun and some cash, but Randy's prison K-9 dog eventually stops him and he returns to prison. In "Early Release" he helps Earl plan an escape from prison by sharing what tactics have not worked, but when he and Paco leave Earl and escape, they crash into a police car and have to return. In "Love Octagon", he lives in a halfway house where he wears a shock collar on his neck.

text: Paco[edit]

text: Paco (played by Raymond Cruz) is Frank Stump's trailermate and usual partner in crime, introduced in the season 3 episode "The Frank Factor". He is Catalina's childhood sweetheart and hopes to reunite with her. He sends for her around the time they were planning on a big robbery of an Indian casino, however, when he and Frank were making their getaway, he is distracted by Catalina on the side of the road, and inadvertently hits an FBI van (the one that Darnell got out of.) He is serving time in the same prison as Frank and Earl. In "Midnight Bun" he accidentally reveals that Frank had hidden some cash in the trailer. In "Early Release", he and Frank escape from prison, but when Paco sees Catalina on the side of the road again, he crashes into a police car and has to return. In "Love Octagon", due to prison overcrowding, he lives in a halfway house and works at Camden Foreign Foods as its mascot Senor Lo Mein. He also finally reunites with Catalina in that episode, but does not appear in any episodes following.

text: Other recurring characters[edit]

text: Didi[edit]

text: Didi (played by Tracy Ashton) is the one-legged girl from whom Earl stole a car after telling her he loved her. She works at Yummy's Donut Shop (episode "Monkeys in Space") and has a fast one-armed, no-legged boyfriend named Jake (played by Cameron Clapp), whom she met while hopping after Earl's winning lottery ticket as it blew in the wind (episode "Number One"). She is still angry at Earl and had her boyfriend chase him away when he tried to apologize. Didi gets around by hopping (although she does possess a prosthetic leg, the only use it gets is when her dog humps it), whereas her boyfriend uses prosthetic limbs and is quite agile. She lives across the street from Donny Jones. She always called Earl a "Son of a Bitch" when she sees him, and chases after him. The exact cause of her losing a leg is unknown; however, in "Our Other Cops Is On", Didi states that "she already survived one explosion". She finally forgives Earl in the season 3 finale where she has Earl try to live a day on one leg.

text: Electrolarynx Guy[edit]

text: Electrolarynx Guy (played by Jack Axelrod) is an unnamed old man who can only speak with the help of an electrolarynx, apparently because of a lifetime of smoking. He sold Randy a Quit Smoking cassette for $0.32 (negotiated from $0.40). He also posed as Randy's father when Randy went back to high school in Randy's Touchdown. According to a deleted scene commentary in the Season 1 episode O Karma, Where Art Thou?, Jack Axelrod does not use an electrolarynx in real life.

text: Natalie Duckworth[edit]

text: Natalie Duckworth (played by Beth Riesgraf, then-girlfriend of Jason Lee) was Earl's one-time girlfriend; her first appearance was in "Faked My Own Death". Natalie was unable to take a hint that Earl was not into her so and thus faked his own death. He later told her that her clingy personality was the real reason he faked his death. In turn, Natalie faked her own death to make Earl feel bad, and in doing so, she gained a large amount of confidence. She also appeared in "Our "Cops" Is On"; after Joy and Earl stole a police car, Joy called Natalie a slut with a megaphone and told her to get "on [the car in front of Joy] and spread [her] legs".

text: Willie the One-Eyed Mailman[edit]

text: Willie the One-Eyed Mailman (played by Bill Suplee, who is Ethan Suplee's father) is a local mailman who wears an eye patch. He is affable but somewhat of a slacker as he has been seen throwing mail on the floor of someone's home or simply throwing it in the garbage. His lack of depth perception has caused problems for him more than once when giving or reaching for items (episode "Number One"). He had lost his eye when Joy smashed Earl's Def Leppard picture and a glass shard damaged his eye (episode "Our Cops Is On"). In the episode "Monkeys Take a Bath", he takes out his glass eye so he can play some kind of marble game, only to lose it when Joy bought the game at a garage sale.

text: TV's Tim Stack[edit]

text: TV's Tim Stack (played by Timothy Stack, who is also the series' Consulting Producer and occasional episode writer) is Camden's hometown celebrity as he has appeared in a number of television shows. He is regularly seen intoxicated and wearing the wardrobe of his character Notch Johnson from Son of the Beach. In "Broke Joy's Fancy Figurine", he hosts the Balboa & Sons' mother-daughter pageant.[g][v] In "Y2K", he was a featured participant in Camden County's New Year's Day parade. In the "Our "Cops" Is On" flashback episode, he was pulled over for drunk driving, where he stated that he had 62 credits in IMDb.[vi] The officer let him go because he was a fan of Stack's role on Punky Brewster, after which he crashed into the side of the road again. In a flashback episode "Harassed a Reporter", a visibly disoriented Stack is present at a ribbon cutting ceremony for a rehabilitation center. In the flashback episode "The Frank Factor", he was a potential sugar daddy for Joy, but she was grossed out when he dressed up as an adult baby for their tryst. He also appears in "Bad Earl" where he and Earl's friends try to do an intervention, having been in several interventions himself before. In season 4 his agent Wilfred Dierkes (played by producer Greg Garcia) is seen in some episodes.

text: Iqball[edit]

text: Iqball (played by Abdul Goznobi) is the clerk at the Camden Market who sold Earl the winning lottery ticket. He appears in multiple episodes whenever there are Camden townsfolk around, in his green-vested work uniform. In the season 1 finale, "Number One", he speaks Bengali relying on Patty to translate for him, but in later episodes, he is shown speaking English, as well. In the second COPS-themed episode set, he has a food booth at the Camden 4 July Fair. In the season 4 flashback episode "Earl and Joy's Anniversary", he tells the folks stuck in the phone booth that the bees have moved on to Texas. He also competed against Erik Estrada in acting out the Yorick scene in Hamlet on the Estrada or Nada game show.

text: Stuart Daniels[edit]

text: Stuart Daniels (played by Mike O'Malley), introduced in the episode "Stole a Badge", comes from a family of police officers, his mother and four sisters all being on the job. He is frequently scolded by his family for losing his badge and other actions of incompetence, and when Earl stole the badge, he was demoted to watching over a rest stop where he has to replenish the toilet paper rolls at his own expense. He lost interest in improving his career, but with Earl's help, he quits the police force and pursues his dream of becoming a professional bowler. He was one of the officers featured in the COPS-themed flashback episodes. In "Our Cops Is On", where he was shown breaking up a fight between the Electrolarynx Man and Nescobar-A-Lop-Lop, confronting Donny Jones about his public nudity, and remaining blissfully unaware of Kenny James's attempts to come on to him. In "Our Other Cops Is On", Kenny James wins the "ride-along with a cop" silent auction and joins him. He inadvertently loses $50,000 worth of surveillance equipment that he was going to demonstrate, as well as the Fourth of July Fair's fireworks. He accidentally hits Billie Cunningham with his car when she was helping Earl. He then tries to make it up to her by visiting her at the hospital and taking her home, telling her that the cops are looking for her. At the end of the third season, having interacted with Kenny many times and discovering they have similar interests, he moves in with Kenny and they become lovers.

text: Josh Martin[edit]

text: Joshua Martin (played by Josh Wolf) is a Bargain Bag store employee, first appearing in "Very Bad Things", where Earl and Joy discover him in the back of a Bargain Bag truck that the latter had stolen. Earl and Joy tried to help Josh escape without him being able to identify them, but they were unsuccessful and Joy was sent to prison for grand theft auto, kidnapping and assault. In "Kept a Guy Locked in a Truck", he is found dead in his apartment, having been crushed by a retracted Murphy bed. His spirit haunts Earl and demands not to be forgotten. Earl tries to throw a funeral for him but is unable to find any friends, only to discover that his friends are all from the Internet.

text: Josh appears in other flashback-themed episodes such as the COPS-themed "Our Other 'Cops' Is On!" where he mans a Bargain Bag booth. In "I Won't Die with a Little Help from My Friends (Part 2)", Josh appears in Earl's coma world, ready to escort Earl to the afterlife. In "Inside Probe, Part 2", he had re-cemented the floor of the women's bathroom at the Crab Shack, inadvertently where its owner Ernie Belcher had later fallen in and died.

text: Ruby Whitlow[edit]

text: Ruby Whitlow (played by Marlee Matlin) is a deaf attorney assigned to Joy's criminal case in season 2. She has an interpreter named Doug, but can also read lips and talk a little bit, of which Joy thinks Ruby has a funny accent. In the episode "The Trial", Earl falls in love with Ruby and they have a one-night stand. However, she discovers Earl's list in which he had robbed her two years prior because she was deaf and couldn't hear him break in, and they break up. At Joy's trial, Doug had injured his tongue, so Ruby has a Mandarin-speaking woman who knows sign language help her out, and Nescobar-A-Lop-Lop translate from Mandarin to English. The trial is about 50/50 until Earl's 911 tapes condemn Joy. However, when Earl takes the punishment, she is impressed.

text: Dan Coscino[edit]

text: Dan Coscino (played by production assistant Dan Coscino) is a background character who sings or appears at several random venues such as the Fourth of July Fair, the Pimmit Hills Trailer Park, and the Crab Shack. He is typically seen wearing a T-shirt with his name on it.[8]

text: Jerry Hazelwood[edit]

text: Jeremiah "Jerry" Hazelwood (played by Craig T. Nelson) is the Warden of Camden County, As the husband of the Governor, he was caught by her in the presence of some dignitaries when he was in his underwear playing Guitar Hero. He is placed in an assortment of jobs of which he is incompetent. For instance, he was in charge of Homeland Security where he didn't think anything would happen prior to September 11, 2001. He eventually became warden but still initiates poorly thought out programs such as having the inmates build ladders, or having the prison guards host a Take Our Daughters to Work Day and almost had one of the short-statured inmates escape as a student. At one point he accidentally admits to the press that his wife the Governor has a sexual addiction and that they are also having problems in their marriage and having marriage counseling. As he is afraid of violent confrontations, he often has Earl do his job, rewarding him with certificates that reduce Earl's prison time. He has Earl stop a gang rivalry, start a Scared Straight! program for kids, and start a program to mediate problems between victims and criminals. However, he later shreds all of Earl's certificates in order to keep Earl working for him. When Jerry sees his former roommate Darnell, he is reminded of his days as a porn star by the name of Richard Jammer in the 1980s and 1990s, and not wanting that to surface, he reinstates Earl's certificates and releases him from prison.

text: Jeff Hoyne[edit]

text: Jeffrey Hoyne (played by Billy Gardell) is an overweight and incompetent police officer who appears mostly in seasons 3 and 4. He has two identical siblings, a brother, named Billy, who works as a Warehouse worker at Waadt Appliance and is deemed the more fit of the two brothers; and an unnamed sister, both of whom are also portrayed by Gardell.

text: Notes[edit]

text:
Jump up ^ Earl as a kid is played by Noah Crawford.[1]
Jump up ^ Randy as a kid is played by Ryan Armstrong.[3]
Jump up ^ Catalina's last name is mentioned multiple times in the season 3 "Creative Writing" episode. Her middle name is first mentioned in the season 4 "Inside Probe" episode
Jump up ^ According to the My Name Is Earl Season 1 DVD, the actor N'Gom is actually fluent in six languages including Mandarin.
Jump up ^ In a deleted scene, TV's Tim Stack "took" Catalina out to dinner, only to give the bill to her, down a pill of Viagra and offer to go back to her place.[7]
Jump up ^ Timothy Stack's claim of having 62 credits on IMDb was accurate prior to the airing of the "Our "Cops" Is On" which would have made it the 63rd appearance.


document_title: Hounded (The Walking Dead)

question_text: who are the voices on the phone walking dead

root

text: Hounded (The Walking Dead)

text: Plot[edit]

text: Rick (Andrew Lincoln), still trying to cope with the death of his wife, Lori (Sarah Wayne Callies) after childbirth, is alone in the prison boiler room where she had died when the phone rings. He answers it to hear the voice of Amy (Emma Bell) telling him she is in a safe place and will call back later. Later, a second call from Jim (Andrew Rothenberg) asks him to explain his justification for killing other people and berates him for refusing to talk about Lori's death before dropping the call. A third call from Jacqui (Jeryl Prescott Sales) draws Rick to try to explain his refusal to talk about Lori's death. Finally, the last call is from Lori; realization dawns on him that these calls have come from those that have died, and all imagined as part of his grief. He leaves the boiler room, cleans himself up, and goes to join the rest of the group, seeing his daughter for the first time since he saw Maggie carry her into the yard after she was born.

tag: p

text: In Woodbury, Andrea (Laurie Holden) volunteers for sentry duty and is trained to use a bow and arrow by one of the town guards, Haley (Alexa Nikolas). When a walker approaches and their arrows fail to fell it, Andrea jumps over the wall and kills the walker with a knife. She is chastised by Haley for breaking the rules and called to The Governor (David Morrissey). Andrea says that seeing the fight between Merle (Michael Rooker) and Martinez (Jose Pablo Cantillo) the night before had envigorated her. Andrea spends the night with The Governor and they have sex.

text: Meanwhile, Merle and three others from Woodbury have been tasked by The Governor to locate Michonne (Danai Gurira), who had left the town. She ambushes them, killing two of Merle's men. Merle shoots Michonne in the leg, she then runs off. Merle is left with the inexperienced Gargulio (Dave Davis) to track her. Merle continues the pursuit, and eventually the two of them engage in a fight. The fight draws walkers which pin them down. Michonne escapes by slicing open one, spilling its entrails on her and allowing her to flee unnoticed, while Gargulio helps Merle to break free. Recognizing Michonne is heading for the dangerous Red Zone, Merle calls off the hunt and returns to Woodbury, with the intent to say that he killed Michonne. Gargulio refuses to lie to The Governor, forcing Merle to kill him. Merle and Michonne both separately converge on a shopping mall where Glenn (Steven Yeun) and Maggie (Lauren Cohan) are gathering supplies for the newborn. Michonne stays hidden as Merle approaches the two having recognized Glenn as part of Rick's group that had left him to die in Atlanta. He forces the two to drive him back to Woodbury. Michonne, overhearing the conversation, gathers the supplies Glenn and Maggie obtained and makes her way to the prison. In Woodbury, as Glenn and Maggie are locked into separate rooms for later interrogation, Merle explains how he had killed Michonne.

text: At the prison, Rick spots Michonne waiting patiently outside with supplies for the newborn, the walker guts she was covered in masking her presence from the walkers that surround the prison. Inside, Daryl (Norman Reedus) and Oscar (Vincent Ward) are clearing out walkers when they spot one with Carol's (Melissa McBride) knife in it, who they thought had died in the previous walker infestation. Seeing a secured door nearby, they open it and discover Carol inside, exhausted but alive.

text: Cast[edit]

text:
Andrew Lincoln as Rick Grimes
Sarah Wayne Callies as Lori Grimes (voice only)
Laurie Holden as Andrea
Norman Reedus as Daryl Dixon
Steven Yeun as Glenn Rhee
Lauren Cohan as Maggie Greene
Chandler Riggs as Carl Grimes
Danai Gurira as Michonne
Michael Rooker as Merle Dixon
David Morrissey as Philip Blake / The Governor
Melissa McBride as Carol Peletier
Scott Wilson as Hershel Greene

tag: ul

text: Reception[edit]

text: Critical response[edit]

text: Zack Handlen, writing for The A.V. Club, rated the episode an A− on an A to F scale. Of the multiple storylines weaved in this episode, he felt that Rick's was the strongest and Andrea's the weakest, but also noted that Andrea has become "more interesting" with her confession about enjoying the fights from the previous episode.[1]

text: Ratings[edit]

text: Upon its initial broadcast on November 18, 2012, "Hounded" was watched by an estimated 9.21 million viewers,[2] decreasing in roughly a million viewers from the previous episode.[3]


document_title: Uranus

question_text: how many km is uranus away from the sun

question_tokens: how many km is uranus away from the sun

text: Uranus

text: History

text: Like the classical planets, Uranus is visible to the naked eye, but it was never recognised as a planet by ancient observers because of its dimness and slow orbit.[18] Sir William Herschel announced its discovery on 13 March 1781, expanding the known boundaries of the Solar System for the first time in history and making Uranus the first planet discovered with a telescope.

text: Discovery

text: Uranus had been observed on many occasions before its recognition as a planet, but it was generally mistaken for a star. Possibly the earliest known observation was by Hipparchos, who in 128 BCE might have recorded it as a star for his star catalogue that was later incorporated into Ptolemy's Almagest.[19] The earliest definite sighting was in 1690, when John Flamsteed observed it at least six times, cataloguing it as 34 Tauri. The French astronomer Pierre Charles Le Monnier observed Uranus at least twelve times between 1750 and 1769,[20] including on four consecutive nights.

text: Sir William Herschel observed Uranus on 13 March 1781 from the garden of his house at 19 New King Street in Bath, Somerset, England (now the Herschel Museum of Astronomy),[21] and initially reported it (on 26 April 1781) as a comet.[22] Herschel "engaged in a series of observations on the parallax of the fixed stars",[23] using a telescope of his own design.

text: Herschel recorded in his journal: "In the quartile near ζ Tauri ... either [a] Nebulous star or perhaps a comet."[24] On 17 March he noted: "I looked for the Comet or Nebulous Star and found that it is a Comet, for it has changed its place."[25] When he presented his discovery to the Royal Society, he continued to assert that he had found a comet, but also implicitly compared it to a planet:[23]

text: The power I had on when I first saw the comet was 227. From experience I know that the diameters of the fixed stars are not proportionally magnified with higher powers, as planets are; therefore I now put the powers at 460 and 932, and found that the diameter of the comet increased in proportion to the power, as it ought to be, on the supposition of its not being a fixed star, while the diameters of the stars to which I compared it were not increased in the same ratio. Moreover, the comet being magnified much beyond what its light would admit of, appeared hazy and ill-defined with these great powers, while the stars preserved that lustre and distinctness which from many thousand observations I knew they would retain. The sequel has shown that my surmises were well-founded, this proving to be the Comet we have lately observed.[23]

text: Herschel notified the Astronomer Royal, Nevil Maskelyne, of his discovery and received this flummoxed reply from him on 23 April 1781: "I don't know what to call it. It is as likely to be a regular planet moving in an orbit nearly circular to the sun as a Comet moving in a very eccentric ellipsis. I have not yet seen any coma or tail to it."[26]

text: Although Herschel continued to describe his new object as a comet, other astronomers had already begun to suspect otherwise. Finnish-Swedish astronomer Anders Johan Lexell, working in Russia, was the first to compute the orbit of the new object.[27] Its nearly circular orbit led him to a conclusion that it was a planet rather than a comet. Berlin astronomer Johann Elert Bode described Herschel's discovery as "a moving star that can be deemed a hitherto unknown planet-like object circulating beyond the orbit of Saturn".[28] Bode concluded that its near-circular orbit was more like a planet than a comet.[29]

text: The object was soon universally accepted as a new planet. By 1783, Herschel acknowledged this to Royal Society president Joseph Banks: "By the observation of the most eminent Astronomers in Europe it appears that the new star, which I had the honour of pointing out to them in March 1781, is a Primary Planet of our Solar System."[30] In recognition of his achievement, King George III gave Herschel an annual stipend of £200 on condition that he move to Windsor so that the Royal Family could look through his telescopes.[31]

text: Name

text: The name of Uranus references the ancient Greek deity of the sky Uranus (Ancient Greek: Οὐρανός), the father of Cronus (Saturn) and grandfather of Zeus (Jupiter), which in Latin became "Ūranus" (Latin pronunciation: [ˈuranʊs]).[1] It is the only planet whose name is derived directly from a figure of Greek mythology. The adjectival form of Uranus is "Uranian".[32] The pronunciation of the name Uranus preferred among astronomers is /ˈjʊərənəs/,[2] with stress on the first syllable as in Latin Ūranus, in contrast to /jʊˈreɪnəs/, with stress on the second syllable and a long a, though both are considered acceptable.[f]

text: Consensus on the name was not reached until almost 70 years after the planet's discovery. During the original discussions following discovery, Maskelyne asked Herschel to "do the astronomical world the faver  [sic] to give a name to your planet, which is entirely your own, [and] which we are so much obliged to you for the discovery of".[34] In response to Maskelyne's request, Herschel decided to name the object Georgium Sidus (George's Star), or the "Georgian Planet" in honour of his new patron, King George III.[35] He explained this decision in a letter to Joseph Banks:[30]

text: In the fabulous ages of ancient times the appellations of Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn were given to the Planets, as being the names of their principal heroes and divinities. In the present more philosophical era it would hardly be allowable to have recourse to the same method and call it Juno, Pallas, Apollo or Minerva, for a name to our new heavenly body. The first consideration of any particular event, or remarkable incident, seems to be its chronology: if in any future age it should be asked, when this last-found Planet was discovered? It would be a very satisfactory answer to say, 'In the reign of King George the Third'.

text: Herschel's proposed name was not popular outside Britain, and alternatives were soon proposed. Astronomer Jérôme Lalande proposed that it be named Herschel in honour of its discoverer.[36] Swedish astronomer Erik Prosperin proposed the name Neptune, which was supported by other astronomers who liked the idea to commemorate the victories of the British Royal Naval fleet in the course of the American Revolutionary War by calling the new planet even Neptune George III or Neptune Great Britain.[27]

text: In a March 1782 treatise, Bode proposed Uranus, the Latinised version of the Greek god of the sky, Ouranos.[37] Bode argued that the name should follow the mythology so as not to stand out as different from the other planets, and that Uranus was an appropriate name as the father of the first generation of the Titans.[37] He also noted that elegance of the name in that just as Saturn was the father of Jupiter, the new planet should be named after the father of Saturn.[31][37][38][39] In 1789, Bode's Royal Academy colleague Martin Klaproth named his newly discovered element uranium in support of Bode's choice.[40] Ultimately, Bode's suggestion became the most widely used, and became universal in 1850 when HM Nautical Almanac Office, the final holdout, switched from using Georgium Sidus to Uranus.[38]

text: Uranus has two astronomical symbols. The first to be proposed, ♅,[g] was suggested by Lalande in 1784. In a letter to Herschel, Lalande described it as "un globe surmonté par la première lettre de votre nom" ("a globe surmounted by the first letter of your surname").[36] A later proposal, ⛢,[h] is a hybrid of the symbols for Mars and the Sun because Uranus was the Sky in Greek mythology, which was thought to be dominated by the combined powers of the Sun and Mars.[41]

text: Uranus is called by a variety of translations in other languages. In Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese, its name is literally translated as the "sky king star" (天王星).[42][43][44][45] In Thai, its official name is Dao Yurenat (ดาวยูเรนัส), as in English. Its other name in Thai is Dao Maritayu (ดาวมฤตยู, Star of Mṛtyu), after the Sanskrit word for "death", Mrtyu (मृत्यु). In Mongolian, its name is Tengeriin Van (Тэнгэрийн ван), translated as "King of the Sky", reflecting its namesake god's role as the ruler of the heavens. In Hawaiian, its name is Hele‘ekala. In Māori, its name is Whērangi.[46][47]

text: Orbit and rotation

text: Uranus orbits the Sun once every 84 years. Its average distance from the Sun is roughly 20 AU (3 billion km; 2 billion mi). The difference between its minimum and maximum distance from the Sun is 1.8 AU, larger than that of any other planet, though not as large as that of dwarf planet Pluto.[48] The intensity of sunlight varies inversely with the square of distance, and so on Uranus (at about 20 times the distance from the Sun compared to Earth) it is about 1/400 the intensity of light on Earth.[49] Its orbital elements were first calculated in 1783 by Pierre-Simon Laplace.[50] With time, discrepancies began to appear between the predicted and observed orbits, and in 1841, John Couch Adams first proposed that the differences might be due to the gravitational tug of an unseen planet. In 1845, Urbain Le Verrier began his own independent research into Uranus's orbit. On 23 September 1846, Johann Gottfried Galle located a new planet, later named Neptune, at nearly the position predicted by Le Verrier.[51]

text: The rotational period of the interior of Uranus is 17 hours, 14 minutes. As on all the giant planets, its upper atmosphere experiences strong winds in the direction of rotation. At some latitudes, such as about 60 degrees south, visible features of the atmosphere move much faster, making a full rotation in as little as 14 hours.[52]

text: Axial tilt

text: The Uranian axis of rotation is approximately parallel with the plane of the Solar System, with an axial tilt of 97.77° (as defined by prograde rotation). This gives it seasonal changes completely unlike those of the other planets. Near the solstice, one pole faces the Sun continuously and the other faces away. Only a narrow strip around the equator experiences a rapid day–night cycle, but with the Sun low over the horizon. At the other side of Uranus's orbit the orientation of the poles towards the Sun is reversed. Each pole gets around 42 years of continuous sunlight, followed by 42 years of darkness.[53] Near the time of the equinoxes, the Sun faces the equator of Uranus giving a period of day–night cycles similar to those seen on most of the other planets. In contrast to the other planets, whose motions around the Sun resemble that of spinning tops, Uranus's motion can be visualised as that of a ball rolling on the ecliptic plane near solstices and of a spinning rifle bullet near equinoxes.

text: Uranus reached its most recent equinox on 7 December 2007.[54][55]

text:
Northern hemisphere
Year
Southern hemisphere

Winter solstice
1902, 1986
Summer solstice

Vernal equinox
1923, 2007
Autumnal equinox

Summer solstice
1944, 2028
Winter solstice

Autumnal equinox
1965, 2049
Vernal equinox

tag: table

text: One result of this axis orientation is that, averaged over the Uranian year, the polar regions of Uranus receive a greater energy input from the Sun than its equatorial regions. Nevertheless, Uranus is hotter at its equator than at its poles. The underlying mechanism that causes this is unknown. The reason for Uranus's unusual axial tilt is also not known with certainty, but the usual speculation is that during the formation of the Solar System, an Earth-sized protoplanet collided with Uranus, causing the skewed orientation.[56] Uranus's south pole was pointed almost directly at the Sun at the time of Voyager 2's flyby in 1986. The labelling of this pole as "south" uses the definition currently endorsed by the International Astronomical Union, namely that the north pole of a planet or satellite is the pole that points above the invariable plane of the Solar System, regardless of the direction the planet is spinning.[57][58] A different convention is sometimes used, in which a body's north and south poles are defined according to the right-hand rule in relation to the direction of rotation.[59]

text: Visibility

text: From 1995 to 2006, Uranus's apparent magnitude fluctuated between +5.6 and +5.9, placing it just within the limit of naked eye visibility at +6.5.[13] Its angular diameter is between 3.4 and 3.7 arcseconds, compared with 16 to 20 arcseconds for Saturn and 32 to 45 arcseconds for Jupiter.[13] At opposition, Uranus is visible to the naked eye in dark skies, and becomes an easy target even in urban conditions with binoculars.[5] In larger amateur telescopes with an objective diameter of between 15 and 23 cm, Uranus appears as a pale cyan disk with distinct limb darkening. With a large telescope of 25 cm or wider, cloud patterns, as well as some of the larger satellites, such as Titania and Oberon, may be visible.[60]

text: Physical characteristics

text: Internal structure

text: Uranus's mass is roughly 14.5 times that of Earth, making it the least massive of the giant planets. Its diameter is slightly larger than Neptune's at roughly four times that of Earth. A resulting density of 1.27 g/cm3 makes Uranus the second least dense planet, after Saturn.[8][9] This value indicates that it is made primarily of various ices, such as water, ammonia, and methane.[11] The total mass of ice in Uranus's interior is not precisely known, because different figures emerge depending on the model chosen; it must be between 9.3 and 13.5 Earth masses.[11][61] Hydrogen and helium constitute only a small part of the total, with between 0.5 and 1.5 Earth masses.[11] The remainder of the non-ice mass (0.5 to 3.7 Earth masses) is accounted for by rocky material.[11]

text: The standard model of Uranus's structure is that it consists of three layers: a rocky (silicate/iron–nickel) core in the centre, an icy mantle in the middle and an outer gaseous hydrogen/helium envelope.[11][62] The core is relatively small, with a mass of only 0.55 Earth masses and a radius less than 20% of Uranus's; the mantle comprises its bulk, with around 13.4 Earth masses, and the upper atmosphere is relatively insubstantial, weighing about 0.5 Earth masses and extending for the last 20% of Uranus's radius.[11][62] Uranus's core density is around 9 g/cm3, with a pressure in the centre of 8 million bars (800 GPa) and a temperature of about 5000 K.[61][62] The ice mantle is not in fact composed of ice in the conventional sense, but of a hot and dense fluid consisting of water, ammonia and other volatiles.[11][62] This fluid, which has a high electrical conductivity, is sometimes called a water–ammonia ocean.[63]

text: The extreme pressure and temperature deep within Uranus may break up the methane molecules, with the carbon atoms condensing into crystals of diamond that rain down through the mantle like hailstones.[64][65] Very-high-pressure experiments at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory suggest that the base of the mantle may comprise an ocean of liquid diamond, with floating solid 'diamond-bergs'.[66][67]

text: The bulk compositions of Uranus and Neptune are different from those of Jupiter and Saturn, with ice dominating over gases, hence justifying their separate classification as ice giants. There may be a layer of ionic water where the water molecules break down into a soup of hydrogen and oxygen ions, and deeper down superionic water in which the oxygen crystallises but the hydrogen ions move freely within the oxygen lattice.[68]

text: Although the model considered above is reasonably standard, it is not unique; other models also satisfy observations. For instance, if substantial amounts of hydrogen and rocky material are mixed in the ice mantle, the total mass of ices in the interior will be lower, and, correspondingly, the total mass of rocks and hydrogen will be higher. Presently available data does not allow a scientific determination which model is correct.[61] The fluid interior structure of Uranus means that it has no solid surface. The gaseous atmosphere gradually transitions into the internal liquid layers.[11] For the sake of convenience, a revolving oblate spheroid set at the point at which atmospheric pressure equals 1 bar (100 kPa) is conditionally designated as a "surface". It has equatorial and polar radii of 25,559 ± 4 km (15,881.6 ± 2.5 mi) and 24,973 ± 20 km (15,518 ± 12 mi), respectively.[8] This surface is used throughout this article as a zero point for altitudes.

text: Internal heat

text: Uranus's internal heat appears markedly lower than that of the other giant planets; in astronomical terms, it has a low thermal flux.[17][69] Why Uranus's internal temperature is so low is still not understood. Neptune, which is Uranus's near twin in size and composition, radiates 2.61 times as much energy into space as it receives from the Sun,[17] but Uranus radiates hardly any excess heat at all. The total power radiated by Uranus in the far infrared (i.e. heat) part of the spectrum is 7000106000000000000♠1.06±0.08 times the solar energy absorbed in its atmosphere.[12][70] Uranus's heat flux is only 6998420000000000000♠0.042±0.047 W/m2, which is lower than the internal heat flux of Earth of about 6998750000000000000♠0.075 W/m2.[70] The lowest temperature recorded in Uranus's tropopause is 49 K (−224.2 °C; −371.5 °F), making Uranus the coldest planet in the Solar System.[12][70]

text: One of the hypotheses for this discrepancy suggests that when Uranus was hit by a supermassive impactor, which caused it to expel most of its primordial heat, it was left with a depleted core temperature.[71] This impact hypothesis is also used in some attempts to explain the planet's axial tilt. Another hypothesis is that some form of barrier exists in Uranus's upper layers that prevents the core's heat from reaching the surface.[11] For example, convection may take place in a set of compositionally different layers, which may inhibit the upward heat transport;[12][70] perhaps double diffusive convection is a limiting factor.[11]

text: Atmosphere

text: Although there is no well-defined solid surface within Uranus's interior, the outermost part of Uranus's gaseous envelope that is accessible to remote sensing is called its atmosphere.[12] Remote-sensing capability extends down to roughly 300 km below the 1 bar (100 kPa) level, with a corresponding pressure around 100 bar (10 MPa) and temperature of 320 K (47 °C; 116 °F).[72] The tenuous thermosphere extends over two planetary radii from the nominal surface, which is defined to lie at a pressure of 1 bar.[73] The Uranian atmosphere can be divided into three layers: the troposphere, between altitudes of −300 and 50 km (−186 and 31 mi) and pressures from 100 to 0.1 bar (10 MPa to 10 kPa); the stratosphere, spanning altitudes between 50 and 4,000 km (31 and 2,485 mi) and pressures of between 0.1 and 10−10 bar (10 kPa to 10 µPa); and the thermosphere extending from 4,000 km to as high as 50,000 km from the surface.[12] There is no mesosphere.

text: Composition

text:
The composition of Uranus's atmosphere is different from its bulk, consisting mainly of molecular hydrogen and helium.[12] The helium molar fraction, i.e. the number of helium atoms per molecule of gas, is 6999150000000000000♠0.15±0.03[15] in the upper troposphere, which corresponds to a mass fraction 6999260000000000000♠0.26±0.05.[12][70] This value is close to the protosolar helium mass fraction of 6999275000000000000♠0.275±0.01,[74] indicating that helium has not settled in its centre as it has in the gas giants.[12] The third-most-abundant component of Uranus's atmosphere is methane (CH
4).[12] Methane has prominent absorption bands in the visible and near-infrared (IR), making Uranus aquamarine or cyan in colour.[12] Methane molecules account for 2.3% of the atmosphere by molar fraction below the methane cloud deck at the pressure level of 1.3 bar (130 kPa); this represents about 20 to 30 times the carbon abundance found in the Sun.[12][14][75] The mixing ratio[i] is much lower in the upper atmosphere due to its extremely low temperature, which lowers the saturation level and causes excess methane to freeze out.[76] The abundances of less volatile compounds such as ammonia, water, and hydrogen sulfide in the deep atmosphere are poorly known. They are probably also higher than solar values.[12][77] Along with methane, trace amounts of various hydrocarbons are found in the stratosphere of Uranus, which are thought to be produced from methane by photolysis induced by the solar ultraviolet (UV) radiation.[78] They include ethane (C
2H
6), acetylene (C
2H
2), methylacetylene (CH
3C
2H), and diacetylene (C
2HC
2H).[76][79][80] Spectroscopy has also uncovered traces of water vapour, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide in the upper atmosphere, which can only originate from an external source such as infalling dust and comets.[79][80][81]

text: Troposphere

text: The troposphere is the lowest and densest part of the atmosphere and is characterised by a decrease in temperature with altitude.[12] The temperature falls from about 320 K (47 °C; 116 °F) at the base of the nominal troposphere at −300 km to 53 K (−220 °C; −364 °F) at 50 km.[72][75] The temperatures in the coldest upper region of the troposphere (the tropopause) actually vary in the range between 49 and 57 K (−224 and −216 °C; −371 and −357 °F) depending on planetary latitude.[12][69] The tropopause region is responsible for the vast majority of Uranus's thermal far infrared emissions, thus determining its effective temperature of 59.1 ± 0.3 K (−214.1 ± 0.3 °C; −353.3 ± 0.5 °F).[69][70]

text: The troposphere is thought to have a highly complex cloud structure; water clouds are hypothesised to lie in the pressure range of 50 to 100 bar (5 to 10 MPa), ammonium hydrosulfide clouds in the range of 20 to 40 bar (2 to 4 MPa), ammonia or hydrogen sulfide clouds at between 3 and 10 bar (0.3 and 1 MPa) and finally directly detected thin methane clouds at 1 to 2 bar (0.1 to 0.2 MPa).[12][14][72][82] The troposphere is a dynamic part of the atmosphere, exhibiting strong winds, bright clouds and seasonal changes.[17]

text: Upper atmosphere

text: The middle layer of the Uranian atmosphere is the stratosphere, where temperature generally increases with altitude from 53 K (−220 °C; −364 °F) in the tropopause to between 800 and 850 K (527 and 577 °C; 980 and 1,070 °F) at the base of the thermosphere.[73] The heating of the stratosphere is caused by absorption of solar UV and IR radiation by methane and other hydrocarbons,[84] which form in this part of the atmosphere as a result of methane photolysis.[78] Heat is also conducted from the hot thermosphere.[84] The hydrocarbons occupy a relatively narrow layer at altitudes of between 100 and 300 km corresponding to a pressure range of 10 to 0.1 mbar (10.00 to 0.10 hPa) and temperatures of between 75 and 170 K (−198 and −103 °C; −325 and −154 °F).[76][79] The most abundant hydrocarbons are methane, acetylene and ethane with mixing ratios of around 10−7 relative to hydrogen. The mixing ratio of carbon monoxide is similar at these altitudes.[76][79][81] Heavier hydrocarbons and carbon dioxide have mixing ratios three orders of magnitude lower.[79] The abundance ratio of water is around 7×10−9.[80] Ethane and acetylene tend to condense in the colder lower part of stratosphere and tropopause (below 10 mBar level) forming haze layers,[78] which may be partly responsible for the bland appearance of Uranus. The concentration of hydrocarbons in the Uranian stratosphere above the haze is significantly lower than in the stratospheres of the other giant planets.[76][85]

text: The outermost layer of the Uranian atmosphere is the thermosphere and corona, which has a uniform temperature around 800 to 850 K.[12][85] The heat sources necessary to sustain such a high level are not understood, as neither the solar UV nor the auroral activity can provide the necessary energy to maintain these temperatures. The weak cooling efficiency due to the lack of hydrocarbons in the stratosphere above 0.1 mBar pressure level may contribute too.[73][85] In addition to molecular hydrogen, the thermosphere-corona contains many free hydrogen atoms. Their small mass and high temperatures explain why the corona extends as far as 50,000 km (31,000 mi), or two Uranian radii, from its surface.[73][85] This extended corona is a unique feature of Uranus.[85] Its effects include a drag on small particles orbiting Uranus, causing a general depletion of dust in the Uranian rings.[73] The Uranian thermosphere, together with the upper part of the stratosphere, corresponds to the ionosphere of Uranus.[75] Observations show that the ionosphere occupies altitudes from 2,000 to 10,000 km (1,200 to 6,200 mi).[75] The Uranian ionosphere is denser than that of either Saturn or Neptune, which may arise from the low concentration of hydrocarbons in the stratosphere.[85][86] The ionosphere is mainly sustained by solar UV radiation and its density depends on the solar activity.[87] Auroral activity is insignificant as compared to Jupiter and Saturn.[85][88]

text:
Uranus's atmosphere

Temperature profile of the Uranian troposphere and lower stratosphere. Cloud and haze layers are also indicated.

Zonal wind speeds on Uranus. Shaded areas show the southern collar and its future northern counterpart. The red curve is a symmetrical fit to the data.

text: Magnetosphere

text: Before the arrival of Voyager 2, no measurements of the Uranian magnetosphere had been taken, so its nature remained a mystery. Before 1986, scientists had expected the magnetic field of Uranus to be in line with the solar wind, because it would then align with Uranus's poles that lie in the ecliptic.[89]

text: Voyager's observations revealed that Uranus's magnetic field is peculiar, both because it does not originate from its geometric centre, and because it is tilted at 59° from the axis of rotation.[89][90] In fact the magnetic dipole is shifted from the Uranus's centre towards the south rotational pole by as much as one third of the planetary radius.[89] This unusual geometry results in a highly asymmetric magnetosphere, where the magnetic field strength on the surface in the southern hemisphere can be as low as 0.1 gauss (10 µT), whereas in the northern hemisphere it can be as high as 1.1 gauss (110 µT).[89] The average field at the surface is 0.23 gauss (23 µT).[89] Studies of Voyager 2 data in 2017 suggest that this asymmetry causes Uranus's magnetosphere to connect with the solar wind once a Uranian day, opening the planet to the Sun's particles.[91] In comparison, the magnetic field of Earth is roughly as strong at either pole, and its "magnetic equator" is roughly parallel with its geographical equator.[90] The dipole moment of Uranus is 50 times that of Earth.[89][90] Neptune has a similarly displaced and tilted magnetic field, suggesting that this may be a common feature of ice giants.[90] One hypothesis is that, unlike the magnetic fields of the terrestrial and gas giants, which are generated within their cores, the ice giants' magnetic fields are generated by motion at relatively shallow depths, for instance, in the water–ammonia ocean.[63][92] Another possible explanation for the magnetosphere's alignment is that there are oceans of liquid diamond in Uranus's interior that would deter the magnetic field.[66]

text: Despite its curious alignment, in other respects the Uranian magnetosphere is like those of other planets: it has a bow shock at about 23 Uranian radii ahead of it, a magnetopause at 18 Uranian radii, a fully developed magnetotail, and radiation belts.[89][90][93] Overall, the structure of Uranus's magnetosphere is different from Jupiter's and more similar to Saturn's.[89][90] Uranus's magnetotail trails behind it into space for millions of kilometres and is twisted by its sideways rotation into a long corkscrew.[89][94]

text: Uranus's magnetosphere contains charged particles: mainly protons and electrons, with a small amount of H2+ ions.[90][93] No heavier ions have been detected. Many of these particles probably derive from the thermosphere.[93] The ion and electron energies can be as high as 4 and 1.2 megaelectronvolts, respectively.[93] The density of low-energy (below 1 kiloelectronvolt) ions in the inner magnetosphere is about 2 cm−3.[95] The particle population is strongly affected by the Uranian moons, which sweep through the magnetosphere, leaving noticeable gaps.[93] The particle flux is high enough to cause darkening or space weathering of their surfaces on an astronomically rapid timescale of 100,000 years.[93] This may be the cause of the uniformly dark colouration of the Uranian satellites and rings.[96] Uranus has relatively well developed aurorae, which are seen as bright arcs around both magnetic poles.[85] Unlike Jupiter's, Uranus's aurorae seem to be insignificant for the energy balance of the planetary thermosphere.[88]

text: Climate

text: At ultraviolet and visible wavelengths, Uranus's atmosphere is bland in comparison to the other giant planets, even to Neptune, which it otherwise closely resembles.[17] When Voyager 2 flew by Uranus in 1986, it observed a total of ten cloud features across the entire planet.[16][97] One proposed explanation for this dearth of features is that Uranus's internal heat appears markedly lower than that of the other giant planets. The lowest temperature recorded in Uranus's tropopause is 49 K (−224 °C; −371 °F), making Uranus the coldest planet in the Solar System.[12][70]

text: Banded structure, winds and clouds

text: In 1986, Voyager 2 found that the visible southern hemisphere of Uranus can be subdivided into two regions: a bright polar cap and dark equatorial bands.[16] Their boundary is located at about −45° of latitude. A narrow band straddling the latitudinal range from −45 to −50° is the brightest large feature on its visible surface.[16][98] It is called a southern "collar". The cap and collar are thought to be a dense region of methane clouds located within the pressure range of 1.3 to 2 bar (see above).[99] Besides the large-scale banded structure, Voyager 2 observed ten small bright clouds, most lying several degrees to the north from the collar.[16] In all other respects Uranus looked like a dynamically dead planet in 1986. Voyager 2 arrived during the height of Uranus's southern summer and could not observe the northern hemisphere. At the beginning of the 21st century, when the northern polar region came into view, the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) and Keck telescope initially observed neither a collar nor a polar cap in the northern hemisphere.[98] So Uranus appeared to be asymmetric: bright near the south pole and uniformly dark in the region north of the southern collar.[98] In 2007, when Uranus passed its equinox, the southern collar almost disappeared, and a faint northern collar emerged near 45° of latitude.[100]

text: In the 1990s, the number of the observed bright cloud features grew considerably partly because new high-resolution imaging techniques became available.[17] Most were found in the northern hemisphere as it started to become visible.[17] An early explanation—that bright clouds are easier to identify in its dark part, whereas in the southern hemisphere the bright collar masks them – was shown to be incorrect.[101][102] Nevertheless there are differences between the clouds of each hemisphere. The northern clouds are smaller, sharper and brighter.[102] They appear to lie at a higher altitude.[102] The lifetime of clouds spans several orders of magnitude. Some small clouds live for hours; at least one southern cloud may have persisted since the Voyager 2 flyby.[17][97] Recent observation also discovered that cloud features on Uranus have a lot in common with those on Neptune.[17] For example, the dark spots common on Neptune had never been observed on Uranus before 2006, when the first such feature dubbed Uranus Dark Spot was imaged.[103] The speculation is that Uranus is becoming more Neptune-like during its equinoctial season.[104]

text: The tracking of numerous cloud features allowed determination of zonal winds blowing in the upper troposphere of Uranus.[17] At the equator winds are retrograde, which means that they blow in the reverse direction to the planetary rotation. Their speeds are from −360 to −180 km/h (−220 to −110 mph).[17][98] Wind speeds increase with the distance from the equator, reaching zero values near ±20° latitude, where the troposphere's temperature minimum is located.[17][69] Closer to the poles, the winds shift to a prograde direction, flowing with Uranus's rotation. Wind speeds continue to increase reaching maxima at ±60° latitude before falling to zero at the poles.[17] Wind speeds at −40° latitude range from 540 to 720 km/h (340 to 450 mph). Because the collar obscures all clouds below that parallel, speeds between it and the southern pole are impossible to measure.[17] In contrast, in the northern hemisphere maximum speeds as high as 860 km/h (540 mph) are observed near +50° latitude.[17][98][105]

text: Seasonal variation

text: For a short period from March to May 2004, large clouds appeared in the Uranian atmosphere, giving it a Neptune-like appearance.[102][106] Observations included record-breaking wind speeds of 820 km/h (510 mph) and a persistent thunderstorm referred to as "Fourth of July fireworks".[97] On 23 August 2006, researchers at the Space Science Institute (Boulder, Colorado) and the University of Wisconsin observed a dark spot on Uranus's surface, giving scientists more insight into Uranus's atmospheric activity.[103] Why this sudden upsurge in activity occurred is not fully known, but it appears that Uranus's extreme axial tilt results in extreme seasonal variations in its weather.[55][104] Determining the nature of this seasonal variation is difficult because good data on Uranus's atmosphere have existed for less than 84 years, or one full Uranian year. Photometry over the course of half a Uranian year (beginning in the 1950s) has shown regular variation in the brightness in two spectral bands, with maxima occurring at the solstices and minima occurring at the equinoxes.[107] A similar periodic variation, with maxima at the solstices, has been noted in microwave measurements of the deep troposphere begun in the 1960s.[108] Stratospheric temperature measurements beginning in the 1970s also showed maximum values near the 1986 solstice.[84] The majority of this variability is thought to occur owing to changes in the viewing geometry.[101]

text: There are some indications that physical seasonal changes are happening in Uranus. Although Uranus is known to have a bright south polar region, the north pole is fairly dim, which is incompatible with the model of the seasonal change outlined above.[104] During its previous northern solstice in 1944, Uranus displayed elevated levels of brightness, which suggests that the north pole was not always so dim.[107] This information implies that the visible pole brightens some time before the solstice and darkens after the equinox.[104] Detailed analysis of the visible and microwave data revealed that the periodical changes of brightness are not completely symmetrical around the solstices, which also indicates a change in the meridional albedo patterns.[104] In the 1990s, as Uranus moved away from its solstice, Hubble and ground-based telescopes revealed that the south polar cap darkened noticeably (except the southern collar, which remained bright),[99] whereas the northern hemisphere demonstrated increasing activity,[97] such as cloud formations and stronger winds, bolstering expectations that it should brighten soon.[102] This indeed happened in 2007 when it passed an equinox: a faint northern polar collar arose, and the southern collar became nearly invisible, although the zonal wind profile remained slightly asymmetric, with northern winds being somewhat slower than southern.[100]

text: The mechanism of these physical changes is still not clear.[104] Near the summer and winter solstices, Uranus's hemispheres lie alternately either in full glare of the Sun's rays or facing deep space. The brightening of the sunlit hemisphere is thought to result from the local thickening of the methane clouds and haze layers located in the troposphere.[99] The bright collar at −45° latitude is also connected with methane clouds.[99] Other changes in the southern polar region can be explained by changes in the lower cloud layers.[99] The variation of the microwave emission from Uranus is probably caused by changes in the deep tropospheric circulation, because thick polar clouds and haze may inhibit convection.[109] Now that the spring and autumn equinoxes are arriving on Uranus, the dynamics are changing and convection can occur again.[97][109]

text: Formation

text: Many argue that the differences between the ice giants and the gas giants extend to their formation.[110][111] The Solar System is hypothesised to have formed from a giant rotating ball of gas and dust known as the presolar nebula. Much of the nebula's gas, primarily hydrogen and helium, formed the Sun, and the dust grains collected together to form the first protoplanets. As the planets grew, some of them eventually accreted enough matter for their gravity to hold on to the nebula's leftover gas.[110][111] The more gas they held onto, the larger they became; the larger they became, the more gas they held onto until a critical point was reached, and their size began to increase exponentially. The ice giants, with only a few Earth masses of nebular gas, never reached that critical point.[110][111][112] Recent simulations of planetary migration have suggested that both ice giants formed closer to the Sun than their present positions, and moved outwards after formation (the Nice model).[110]

text: Moons

text: Uranus has 27 known natural satellites.[112] The names of these satellites are chosen from characters in the works of Shakespeare and Alexander Pope.[62][113] The five main satellites are Miranda, Ariel, Umbriel, Titania, and Oberon.[62] The Uranian satellite system is the least massive among those of the giant planets; the combined mass of the five major satellites would be less than half that of Triton (largest moon of Neptune) alone.[9] The largest of Uranus's satellites, Titania, has a radius of only 788.9 km (490.2 mi), or less than half that of the Moon, but slightly more than Rhea, the second-largest satellite of Saturn, making Titania the eighth-largest moon in the Solar System. Uranus's satellites have relatively low albedos; ranging from 0.20 for Umbriel to 0.35 for Ariel (in green light).[16] They are ice–rock conglomerates composed of roughly 50% ice and 50% rock. The ice may include ammonia and carbon dioxide.[96][114]

text: Among the Uranian satellites, Ariel appears to have the youngest surface with the fewest impact craters and Umbriel's the oldest.[16][96] Miranda has fault canyons 20 km (12 mi) deep, terraced layers, and a chaotic variation in surface ages and features.[16] Miranda's past geologic activity is thought to have been driven by tidal heating at a time when its orbit was more eccentric than currently, probably as a result of a former 3:1 orbital resonance with Umbriel.[115] Extensional processes associated with upwelling diapirs are the likely origin of Miranda's 'racetrack'-like coronae.[116][117] Ariel is thought to have once been held in a 4:1 resonance with Titania.[118]

text: Uranus has at least one horseshoe orbiter occupying the Sun–Uranus L3 Lagrangian point—a gravitationally unstable region at 180° in its orbit, 83982 Crantor.[119][120] Crantor moves inside Uranus's co-orbital region on a complex, temporary horseshoe orbit. 2010 EU65 is also a promising Uranus horseshoe librator candidate.[120]

text: Planetary rings

text: The Uranian rings are composed of extremely dark particles, which vary in size from micrometres to a fraction of a metre.[16] Thirteen distinct rings are presently known, the brightest being the ε ring. All except two rings of Uranus are extremely narrow – they are usually a few kilometres wide. The rings are probably quite young; the dynamics considerations indicate that they did not form with Uranus. The matter in the rings may once have been part of a moon (or moons) that was shattered by high-speed impacts. From numerous pieces of debris that formed as a result of those impacts, only a few particles survived, in stable zones corresponding to the locations of the present rings.[96][121]

text: William Herschel described a possible ring around Uranus in 1789. This sighting is generally considered doubtful, because the rings are quite faint, and in the two following centuries none were noted by other observers. Still, Herschel made an accurate description of the epsilon ring's size, its angle relative to Earth, its red colour, and its apparent changes as Uranus travelled around the Sun.[122][123] The ring system was definitively discovered on 10 March 1977 by James L. Elliot, Edward W. Dunham, and Jessica Mink using the Kuiper Airborne Observatory. The discovery was serendipitous; they planned to use the occultation of the star SAO 158687 (also known as HD 128598) by Uranus to study its atmosphere. When their observations were analysed, they found that the star had disappeared briefly from view five times both before and after it disappeared behind Uranus. They concluded that there must be a ring system around Uranus.[124] Later they detected four additional rings.[124] The rings were directly imaged when Voyager 2 passed Uranus in 1986.[16] Voyager 2 also discovered two additional faint rings, bringing the total number to eleven.[16]

text: In December 2005, the Hubble Space Telescope detected a pair of previously unknown rings. The largest is located twice as far from Uranus as the previously known rings. These new rings are so far from Uranus that they are called the "outer" ring system. Hubble also spotted two small satellites, one of which, Mab, shares its orbit with the outermost newly discovered ring. The new rings bring the total number of Uranian rings to 13.[125] In April 2006, images of the new rings from the Keck Observatory yielded the colours of the outer rings: the outermost is blue and the other one red.[126][127] One hypothesis concerning the outer ring's blue colour is that it is composed of minute particles of water ice from the surface of Mab that are small enough to scatter blue light.[126][128] In contrast, Uranus's inner rings appear grey.[126]

text:
Uranus's rings

Animation about the discovering occultation in 1977. (Click on it to start)

Uranus has a complicated planetary ring system, which was the second such system to be discovered in the Solar System after Saturn's.[121]

Uranus's aurorae against its equatorial rings, imaged by the Hubble telescope. Unlike the aurorae of Earth and Jupiter, those of Uranus are not in line with its poles, due to its lopsided magnetic field.

text: Exploration

text: In 1986, NASA's Voyager 2 interplanetary probe encountered Uranus. This flyby remains the only investigation of Uranus carried out from a short distance and no other visits are planned. Launched in 1977, Voyager 2 made its closest approach to Uranus on 24 January 1986, coming within 81,500 km (50,600 mi) of the cloudtops, before continuing its journey to Neptune. The spacecraft studied the structure and chemical composition of Uranus's atmosphere,[75] including its unique weather, caused by its axial tilt of 97.77°. It made the first detailed investigations of its five largest moons and discovered 10 new ones. It examined all nine of the system's known rings and discovered two more.[16][96][129] It also studied the magnetic field, its irregular structure, its tilt and its unique corkscrew magnetotail caused by Uranus's sideways orientation.[89]

text: Voyager 1 was unable to visit Uranus because investigation of Saturn's moon Titan was considered a priority. This trajectory took Voyager 1 out the plane of the ecliptic, ending its planetary science mission.[130]:118

text: The possibility of sending the Cassini spacecraft from Saturn to Uranus was evaluated during a mission extension planning phase in 2009, but was ultimately rejected in favour of destroying it in the Saturnian atmosphere.[131] It would have taken about twenty years to get to the Uranian system after departing Saturn.[131] A Uranus orbiter and probe was recommended by the 2013–2022 Planetary Science Decadal Survey published in 2011; the proposal envisages launch during 2020–2023 and a 13-year cruise to Uranus.[132] A Uranus entry probe could use Pioneer Venus Multiprobe heritage and descend to 1–5 atmospheres.[132] The ESA evaluated a "medium-class" mission called Uranus Pathfinder.[133] A New Frontiers Uranus Orbiter has been evaluated and recommended in the study, The Case for a Uranus Orbiter.[134] Such a mission is aided by the ease with which a relatively big mass can be sent to the system—over 1500 kg with an Atlas 521 and 12-year journey.[135] For more concepts see Proposed Uranus missions.

text: In culture

text: In astrology, the planet Uranus () is the ruling planet of Aquarius. Because Uranus is cyan and Uranus is associated with electricity, the colour electric blue, which is close to cyan, is associated with the sign Aquarius[136] (see Uranus in astrology).

text: The chemical element uranium, discovered in 1789 by the German chemist Martin Heinrich Klaproth, was named after the newly discovered planet Uranus.[137]

text: "Uranus, the Magician" is a movement in Gustav Holst's orchestral suite The Planets, written between 1914 and 1916.

text: Operation Uranus was the successful military operation in World War II by the Soviet army to take back Stalingrad and marked the turning point in the land war against the Wehrmacht.

text: The lines "Then felt I like some watcher of the skies/When a new planet swims into his ken", from John Keats's "On First Looking Into Chapman's Homer", are a reference to Herschel's discovery of Uranus.[138]

text: Many references to Uranus in popular culture and news involve humor about one pronunciation of its name resembling that of the phrase "your anus".[139]