The first to the sixth planet of the solar system were known by ancient cultures as wandering stars. Uranus, which was discovered by John Flamsteed in 1690, is the first unknown planet to the ancients that was discovered by modern astronomers.
Uranus is known as a very cold planet in our solar system that is as chilly as -224°C due to its being the seventh planet from the sun. Uranus and its neighboring planet Neptune are also known to contain large masses of methane, water and ammonia. Other than that, it had been ordinary and quiet planet in our system until the Voyager 2 caught the image of a beautiful blue hazy circle in 1986 in the northern hemisphere of the planet. Scientists have been curious on the cause of this phenomenon.
Just like Uranus' neighboring planet, Neptune, minimal information is known about the seventh planet. However, what Imke de Pater and some other astronomers found out in August with Keck telescope and in October last year with Hubble Space telescope might have answered some of the questions. As recently published in the Icarus journal, it turned out to be methane storms. Astronomers now are trying to find the energy that drives the storm, which remains a mystery until now. They want to know if it's an active magnetic field or other dynamic interiors that drives the storms.
Another unique thing discovered is that Uranus rotates differently from the earth and other planets' rotations. Our earth rotation is tilted a bit from being straight up and it's the tilt that makes the seasons. Uranus' rotation is so much tilted. It is inclined 98° from up, which means seasons on the planet are very extreme.
There are so many things we don't know about the planets in our solar system and it's a good thing to discover much more things about them. It can be the start of something more visionary like understanding planets in other galaxy.
