Night vision

Uranus rotates on its side with an axial tilt of about 98°, likely from an ancient collision. Methane in its atmosphere absorbs red light, giving it a pale cyan colour. It was the first planet discovered with a telescope, by William Herschel in 1781.

• Each pole gets about 42 years of continuous sunlight, then 42 of darkness.
• At magnitude ~5.7 it is just visible to the naked eye under dark skies.
• Only Voyager 2 has visited it, in 1986.

Mercury

Venus

Earth

Mars

Jupiter

Saturn