What has been said of Jupiter and Saturn applies also to the remaining members of the Jovian group of planets, Uranus and Neptune, viz., that their density is so small that it seems probable that they can not, at the present time, be in a habitable planetary condition.  All four of these outer, larger planets have, in comparatively recent times, been solar orbs, small companions of the sun.  The density of Uranus is about one fifth greater than that of water, and slightly greater than that of Neptune.  Uranus is 32,000 miles in diameter, and Neptune 35,000 miles.  Curiously enough, the force of gravity upon each of these two large planets is a little less than upon the earth.  This arises from the fact that in reckoning gravity on the surface of a planet not only the mass of the planet, but its diameter or radius, must be considered.  Gravity varies directly as the mass, but inversely as the square of the radius, and for this reason a large planet of small density may exercise a less force of gravity at its surface than does a small planet of great density.

The mean distance of Uranus from the sun is about 1,780,000,000 miles, and its period of revolution is eighty-four years; Neptune’s mean distance is about 2,800,000,000 miles, and its period of revolution is about 164 years.

Uranus has four satellites, and Neptune one.  The remarkable thing about these satellites is that they revolve backward, or contrary to the direction in which all the other satellites belonging to the solar system revolve, and in which all the other planets rotate on their axis.  In the case of Uranus, the plane in which the satellites revolve is not far from a position at right angles to the plane of the ecliptic; but in the case of Neptune, the plane of revolution of the satellites is tipped much farther backward.  Since in every other case the satellites of a planet are situated nearly in the plane of the planet’s equator, it may be assumed that the same rule holds with Uranus and Neptune; and, that being so, we must conclude that those planets rotate backward on their axes.  This has an important bearing on the nebular hypothesis of the origin of the solar system, and at one time was thought to furnish a convincing argument against that hypothesis; but it has been shown that by a modification of Laplace’s theory the peculiar behavior of Uranus and Neptune can be reconciled with it.

Very little is known of the surfaces of Uranus and Neptune.  Indications of the existence of belts resembling those of Jupiter have been found in the case of both planets.  There are similar belts on Saturn, and as they seem to be characteristic of large, rapidly rotating bodies of small density, it was to be expected that they would be found on Uranus and Neptune.

The very interesting opinion is entertained by some astronomers that there is at least one other great planet beyond Neptune.  The orbits of certain comets are relied upon as furnishing evidence of the existence of such a body.  Prof.  George Forbes has estimated that this, as yet undiscovered, planet may be even greater than Jupiter in mass, and may be situated at a distance from the sun one hundred times as great as the earth’s, where it revolves in an orbit a single circuit of which requires a thousand years.