AboutSteven LJ Russo Expertise As a space science educator in a planetarium, my work centers around teaching people about the night sky and the solar system. I have a strong background in those areas, plus the history of NASA and spaceflight, and meteorology.
Experience Experience in the area. I have been an amateur astronomer for 47 years, and have been teachng space science in planetariums for 34 years. For 15 years I was a radio and television meteorologist, and for the past 20 years I have been a space science writer for two newspapers in New York State. I am a member of the Middle Atlantic Planetarium Society and the International Planetarium Society. I have had a number of articles published in several astronomy journals, including "The Constellation" and the "Planetarian". Education/Credentials. I hold a B. S. from Wagner College and an M. S. from State University of New York at Oswego. Awards and Honors. I have been awarded the "Fellows" award from the International Planetarium Society for more than 20 years of continuous service in the planetarium field.
Question Hi, I was always of the understanding that Uranus was slightly bigger than Neptune but then I saw a History channel program which showed Neptune considerably bigger than Uranus. I figured it was obviously not to scale but I looked around online to make sure I was right that Uranus was bigger but found mixed answers on other answers sites with some answers both ways. On the wikipedia Neptune article it says "Neptune is 17 times the mass of Earth and is slightly more massive than its near-twin Uranus, which is 15 Earth masses and not as dense.[12]"... Could you clear this up? Thanks.
Answer MASS is different than SIZE.
Uranus is about 32,000 miles across.
Neptune is about 31,000 miles across.
However, the Mass of Neptune is more.
MASS, to keep it simple is the amount of matter IN an object. For example, a Ping Pong ball would have less Mass than a Meatball even though they are the same size.
So as far as the planets, Uranus is bigger, but not by much!
