Uranus rolls around the Sun on its side, wrapped in the coldest air of any planet. Beneath that pale blue haze is a hot, dark ocean that has kept its secrets.
For this trip you are indestructible. Nothing can hurt you. As you fall, we will tell you what a real body would be going through.
Scroll to fall
2,000 km above the clouds
From up here you can see what makes Uranus so strange. It spins on its side, like a ball rolling around the Sun.
So each pole gets about 42 years of daylight, then 42 years of night. Voyager 2 flew past in 1986, and it is still the only visitor Uranus has ever had.
A real body: There's almost no air yet. The Sun is a small, brilliant dot, nearly 400 times dimmer than at home.
50 km above the clouds
You drop into a pale blue-green haze. Methane gas soaks up the red in sunlight, leaving this soft cyan.
This is the coldest air ever measured on any planet, colder even than Neptune, which is much further from the Sun.
A real body: Minus 224 °C. Only 49 degrees above the coldest anything can ever be.
0 km down
You sink through the top cloud deck, made of methane ice. Winds here blow at up to 900 km/h.
When Voyager visited, Uranus looked almost blank. Since then, as its long seasons have turned, telescopes have watched bright storms flare up here.
A real body: Earth-normal air pressure, but at −197 °C. It would freeze you instantly.
40 km down
Just below lies a deck of hydrogen sulfide, the gas that gives rotten eggs their smell.
In 2018, a telescope in Hawaii picked up its signature in these clouds. If you could breathe here, Uranus would stink.
A real body: Three times Earth's air pressure. Still far colder than anywhere on Earth.
250 km down
The light fades as you fall into clouds of water ice, deep under the haze.
Voyager picked up faint radio crackles from Uranus that scientists think came from lightning, flashing somewhere down here.
A real body: Dozens of times Earth's air pressure, like being deep under the sea. It's almost completely dark.
5,000 km down
There's no surface. The gas thickens until it becomes a hot, dense fluid of water, ammonia and methane. Most of Uranus is this ocean.
And here's a mystery. Every other giant planet glows with heat from inside, but Uranus gives off barely more than it gets from the Sun.
Perhaps the crash that tipped it over let its heat escape long ago. Or something down here is holding it in.
A real body: A hundred thousand times Earth's air pressure, and hotter than lava.
7,000 km down
Down here, carbon from methane may be squeezed into diamonds that sink like hail.
In 2022, scientists tested it with the plastic soda bottles are made of. They hit it with a laser, and for a few billionths of a second it turned into tiny diamonds. The oxygen in the plastic, also plentiful inside Uranus, helped them form.
A real body: Hundreds of thousands of times Earth's air pressure. You're falling through a slow hail of diamonds.
12,000 km down
Somewhere around here, the hot water carries electricity. This is probably where Uranus makes its magnetic field.
Nobody knew Uranus had one until Voyager arrived. It turned out to be tilted about 60° from the way the planet spins and pushed far off-centre, which is why scientists think it starts here rather than in the core.
A real body: Around a million times Earth's air pressure. The water here is so squeezed it carries electric current.
25,300 km down
You've reached the heart of Uranus: a small ball of rock and metal, smaller than Earth.
Somewhere in its past, something huge slammed into this planet and knocked it over. It has been rolling around the Sun on its side ever since.
A real body: About eight million times Earth's air pressure and around 5,000 °C, nearly as hot as the surface of the Sun.
Twenty-five thousand kilometres, through the coldest sky and a hidden ocean. You made it.
You would never touch ground. Uranus is wrapped in the coldest air of any planet, −224 °C, which thickens into a hot, dense ocean of water, ammonia and methane.
On the way you'd fall through clouds of methane ice, then hydrogen sulfide, the gas that makes rotten eggs smell.
Deep inside, diamonds may form and sink like hail. At the bottom is a small rocky core at around 5,000 °C.
No. Uranus has no solid surface. Its gas thickens into a hot fluid ocean that makes up most of the planet, with a small core of rock and metal at the bottom.
Scientists think something huge slammed into it long ago and knocked it over. Now each pole gets about 42 years of daylight followed by 42 years of night.
Probably. In 2022, scientists hit plastic, made of the same elements, with a laser and briefly made tiny diamonds. The pressure inside Uranus should do the same to carbon from methane.
Only one. Voyager 2 flew past in January 1986. Nothing has gone into Uranus, and no spacecraft has been back since.
