If this is how you picture
walking on Uranus,
you're wrong.
Let's start this again.
Are you ready to take a trip
to the outer regions
of the Solar System?
To explore
the weirdest planet
in our cosmic neighborhood?
To venture down into a place
that's never been studied
up close by any spacecraft?
Buckle up for an icy, violent
and stinky adventure.
Because your mission
is to spend 5 seconds on Uranus.
And come back.
If you can.
Traveling to Uranus
would be a long, strange journey.
First, you'd have to spend
ten long years
in a spaceship,
speeding
toward the outskirts
of the Solar System.
If you're lucky,
you might even pass Jupiter
and Saturn on the way.
Just make sure you pack
enough food and fuel.
Well, there are some things
you should know about this world.
Uranus isn't a rocky planet
like Earth.
It's an ice giant like Neptune.
And it's the only planet
in the Solar System
that spins on its side.
It spins fast, too.
One day on Uranus
is just 17 Earth hours.
Of course you wouldn't last
that long on it.
Not a chance.
Once you arrived
at your destination,
you'd still have some work to do
to get close to this
giant blue planet.
You might have to dodge
Uranian rings.
Yeah, Uranus has rings.
13 of them.
They aren't
big and majestic
like the gorgeous rings of Saturn.
The outer rings are bright
and easy to spot,
but the inner rings are
narrow and dark.
You have to navigate this part
of the trip with the utmost care.
As you made your way through
the dusty rings of Uranus,
you'd see its glorious blue
atmosphere up close
for the first time
in human history.
Take a moment to enjoy the view.
Ah, Uranus.
What an oddballs planet.
You know I flew by it a month ago?
That was fun.
You know why nobody,
and I mean, nobody,
has ever tried to land
anything on the surface
of this bootyful planet?
Because Uranus has no surface.
It's just a swirling ball
of toxic gas
compressed around a small icy core.
Oh, and wait until I tell you
why those gases on Uranus are toxic.
Yeah, gross.
OK, thanks for your input, Chase.
It's true.
Uranus might have a calming blue color,
but it's cold and toxic.
Not the kind of blue planet
you want to visit.
That's OK.
I think you should sit this one out.
Here I go.
Ahhh, it's brisk here!
RICO, what's the temperature?
-224 °C (-371 °F).
Oh, that's cold.
That explains why I can't feel my fingers.
Or my toes.
Or the rest of my body.
OK, at least those five seconds are done.
RICO, it's time to go home.
Let's bounce.
Impossible.
If my calculations are correct,
you will reach the icy core in 54.4 minutes.
So? What?
That wasn't the plan!
And whats .4 of a minute?
Use seconds, you dumb bot!
I suggest you take this opportunity
to study the planet up close
and report back.
I suggest you take the opportunity
and stuff it up your charging port.
I don't have a charging port.
No one cares, RICO!
No one cares.
Honestly, this sucks.
Uranus smells like shit.
Yeah,
the reason Uranus smells so bad
is that the clouds
in its upper atmosphere
are partially made up
of hydrogen sulfide.
Not only does
this make the planet stink,
but it's also pretty toxic.
Whatever you do, do not inhale it.
If you did it,
it would make you faint
and die instantly.
What?
Would have been nice to know this
before I jumped.
Yeah, well,
after falling
through the stinky clouds
at the top atmosphere,
you'd find yourself
in the mix of 82% hydrogen,
15% helium, and a bit of methane.
Methane gas is what gives Uranus
that bluish-green haze
because it absorbs light
at the red end of the spectrum.
These clouds are getting a little weird.
Kinda floaty.
Yeah, the atmosphere on
Uranus is very dense.
After passing through
its top layer,
you'd stop falling and start
swimming in it instead.
As you were paddling deeper,
you'd start
getting pelted
by frozen gas crystals.
But at least
the temperature would be rising.
I don't know about that.
I don't feel warm at all.
RICO, give me the stats.
The temperature around you
has indeed gone up to -208 °C (-342 °F).
My calculations show
you can expect -153 °C (-243 °F)
in the lower atmosphere.
Cool, great.
Ouch! What is that?
That?
That's diamond rain.
Yeah, on Uranus, it rains diamonds.
That's because
the Uranian atmosphere
is rich in methane,
a single carbon compound.
Under extreme pressure,
the methane molecules
break apart
and crystallize into diamonds.
But the worst part is the wind.
You'd be dealing with winds
gusting at speeds of up to
900 km/h (560 mi/h).
That's three
and a half times
stronger than a category 5
hurricane here on Earth.
RICO, it's getting tight in here.
I can hardly breathe.
And when I do breathe, it smells like ass.
Of course.
The pressure is 100 times greater
than the atmospheric pressure at Earth's sea level.
You are approaching the mantle.
The good news is
you wouldn't splatter on anything
because
there's not much
in the way of solids on Uranus.
The Uranian mantle is
made of water, ammonia
and methane ice.
It would be pitch black in here.
And thanks to the extreme gravity,
you wouldn't
be able to move a muscle.
And it would still be incredibly cold.
What you should be worried
about is the immense pressure
that would be rapidly
increasing the closer
you got to the planet's center.
It would squish you
before you ever got to the core.
Being crushed by Uranus.
I always thought it would be way nicer.
In this extreme
pressure environment,
your carbon-based body
could turn into diamonds
and drop down to the core.
What a spectacular way
to finish this one-way trip
to the center of Uranus.
Chase?
Oh. Oh, right.
Our Solar System is enormous.
There are so many
planets and moons
that are a lot more hospitable
for a five-second mission
than Uranus.
Where should you go next?
How about a place
covered in methane lakes
and with a fantastic view
of Saturn in the sky?
Well, that's a story
for another WHAT IF.