URANUS

Overview

Uranus is the seventh planet from the Sun. Like Jupiter and Saturn, it is made mostly of hydrogen and helium, but it also holds a large amount of "ices" such as water, methane, and ammonia — so, together with Neptune, it is classed as an "ice giant."

Methane in its atmosphere absorbs the red part of sunlight and reflects the blue and green, giving Uranus its clear cyan, blue-green color. Through a telescope it appears as a smooth, almost featureless blue disk.

Features

The most striking thing about Uranus is that its rotation axis is tilted roughly 98 degrees relative to its orbital plane. While other planets spin upright like a top, Uranus lies almost on its side and "rolls" around the Sun.

This gives it extreme seasons. Its orbit takes about 84 years, and over that time one pole stays in daylight for decades on end while the opposite pole is locked in darkness for just as long — a year unlike anything on Earth.

Trivia

The first planet found by telescope — Under good conditions Uranus is just barely visible to the naked eye, but because it moves so slowly across the sky, it was long mistaken for an ordinary faint star. It was only recognized as a planet in the telescope era, making Uranus the first planet ever discovered with a telescope.

Visited just once — Only a single spacecraft, Voyager 2, has ever observed Uranus up close. It flew past in 1986, and much of what we know about the planet comes from the data returned during that brief encounter.

In Gravity Weaver

Uranus is the seventh stage of the solar system run (7th of 9). Guide the Solar Shard with your gravity fields and bring it to the blue-green Uranus to clear the stage.

From this stage onward, a new hazard appears: the Pulsar. On top of the existing flows, nebulae, and slab-like meteors, the pulsar adds yet another thing to avoid. Rather than drawing your gravity fields all at once, read the motion of each obstacle and shape the Solar Shard's path bit by bit to pass through reliably.