The only planet overshadowed by its own pronunciation is now top of NASA’s list of destinations some 36 years after its last visit. A new mission could solve mysteries surrounding the strange ice-cold world – and beyond.
Imagine a world in which the Sun remains in the sky for 21 years then later disappears for the same length of time, leaving you in darkness for two decades. It is a world tilted on its side, sometimes almost rolling ahead in its orbit around the Sun and sometimes rotating in the opposite direction – and with a magnetic field so chaotic you can’t tell north from south.
This is what Uranus is like. The Solar System’s second outermost planet (for now) differs from all the others in a number of ways. Astronomers have wanted to take a closer look at Uranus for decades.
Now, the wish might
