Uranus and Neptune

Students compare Uranus and Neptune, from their discoveries and ice giant interiors to Uranus's sideways tilt, Neptune's supersonic winds and the captured moon Triton.

Grades 5-8About 15 minutes of narrated flight, plus discussion stops8 stops

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What students will see and do

Students begin on Earth with Herschel's telescope discovery of Uranus and the mathematical prediction of Neptune, fly three stops at each ice giant, then pull back to see why these planets matter for the solar system and for exoplanets. The class pauses at the Earth stop to discuss finding Neptune by its pull and at the final stop to plan a mission to an ice giant.

Learning objectives

• Explain how Uranus was discovered by telescope and how Neptune was predicted using gravity
• Describe what makes an ice giant different from a gas giant
• Explain how Uranus's 98 degree tilt produces 42 year seasons at its poles
• Use evidence about inner heat to explain why Neptune has stronger weather than Uranus

NGSS connections

Stops on this journey

1. Found by Telescope, Found by Math (discussion stop)
2. The Sideways Planet
3. Inside an Ice Giant
4. Dark Rings and Shakespeare Moons
5. The Windy Blue World
6. Storms at the Edge
7. Triton, the Backward Moon
8. The Least Explored Planets (discussion stop)

Vocabulary

• ice giant
• axial tilt
• methane
• orbital period
• prediction
• retrograde orbit
• captured moon
• flyby