After a long 10 years of traveling through space, you would finally reach your destination, Uranus. Or also known as the coldest planet in the Solar System. Have microwave food for such a long trip.
And just like the videos of exploring the interior of Jupiter, the Sun and Neptune, Uranus is our next stop. Located 2. 9 billion km from the Sun, Uranus is considered the seventh planet in the Solar System.
Most of what we know about Uranus, such as its moons and rings, comes from the Voyager 2 probe, which made its historic flyby in 1986 as it passed the planet at a distance of 129,000 km above its cloud tops. The rest of what is known comes from observations made with the Hubble telescope and other powerful equipment. With so much valuable information, astronomers can get an idea of what is hidden beneath that smelly, bluish atmosphere.
I'm Gabriel Souza, and you're very welcome here, and if you like my videos, consider subscribing to the channel and leaving a like for more content about the universe. The planet Uranus, like Earth and other gaseous planets, is divided into several layers. From the core to the outermost atmosphere.
But the main layers are the outer atmosphere, inner atmosphere, mantle and core. And the deeper you go towards the core of Uranus, the darker and hotter it becomes. But for now, you'll have to deal with extremely cold temperatures that would make you turn into a popsicle in just a few seconds, or simply die from hypothermia.
Just like the other large planets in the Solar System, entering Uranus would be impossible for a human being. However, let's assume you are equipped with a state-of-the-art super spacesuit that will take you to the center of the planet. You would first need to pass through the planet's rings, which are very dark and made mainly of dust and ice particles.
You may have noticed the blue-green color of Uranus' atmosphere. This color is generated due to methane gas in the atmosphere which, when interacting with the Sun, releases a blue-green color. But make the most of this moment to enjoy the view… Here we are, the first layer of Uranus, the outer atmosphere.
This region is made of clouds of frozen methane, mixed with hydrogen and helium. And around here, the temperature would already be very cold, around -224°C. Uranus has several layers of clouds, but now you would be in the last of them.
And around here you would be able to hear the sound of storms circulating across the planet. But these storms are not above you, they are below. Let's continue.
Uranus has a gravity similar to Earth, with 8. 87 m/s². While the Earth is 9.
8 m/s². So when falling on Uranus, you would be descending at a speed very similar to if you were in free fall towards Earth. It wouldn't take long to pass through these methane clouds and soon you would arrive at the second layer of Uranus.
The atmosphere inside. But this is where things start to get fun. Winds in this region reach up to 900 km/h, which is 2.
6 faster than the fastest hurricane recorded on Earth, which occurred in the Pacific Ocean in 2015, Hurricane Patrícia, with winds that reached 346 km/h. But it's not just that; you may remember I said this trip would be smelly too. The clouds in Uranus' inner atmosphere have a smell reminiscent of rotten eggs and decaying flesh.
That's because the clouds around here are made of hydrogen sulfide. This compound not only makes the planet smell bad, but it is also toxic. So don't inhale it.
Otherwise, this smell would make you faint and die instantly. The lower you go through the atmosphere, the darker it gets, making it difficult to see anything below. But you would still feel the powerful winds swirling around you and the temperature here would rise to 10°C.
In this state, you would have already dived about 130 km below. The sunlight became just a mere distant memory. But given the temperature, you would perhaps feel more comfortable.
But this comfort would be short-lived as you would reach a chaotic zone made of clouds. of ice, and the electricity present in these clouds generates lightning that flashes every second and briefly illuminates your path. The pressure here would be 100 times greater than the atmospheric pressure at sea level on Earth.
And the temperature would increase to 50°C. An interesting thing is that it is believed that this region rains diamonds. A very rich rain by the way.
This happens because Uranus' atmosphere has a lot of methane, and methane is a molecule made of one carbon atom and four hydrogen atoms. When methane is subjected to extreme conditions of temperature and pressure inside Uranus, the carbon atoms are squeezed and form diamond crystals. The hydrogen atoms are left behind as a gas and the diamonds - which are heavier than the gas - fall like raindrops towards the center of the planet.
But it certainly wouldn't be nice to get rained on like that. And now, you've dived about 150 miles down and it's getting a lot darker. But with the help of your spacesuit you would soon realize what is here.
A transition region. The mantle of Uranus, almost as if it were a strange, icy sea without a defined bottom. This region may constitute more than 60% of the mass of Uranus.
This mantle is believed to be a hot, dense fluid composed of water, methane and ammonia. And this is also why Uranus is called the "ice giant", which does not refer to the presence of ice here, as it does not exist. But rather due to these compounds in its composition, which consist most of Uranus.
The pressure and temperature here are so ridiculously high that it makes the carbon present here compress and turn into diamonds too. Reaching Uranus's core from here would take weeks, as the deeper you go, the thicker it becomes, eventually delaying your arrival at the core. After a long time traveling thousands of km in this bizarre ocean, you would finally arrive at the center of the planet.
The core of Uranus. It is probably made of highly compressed iron rock and exotic ices. The temperature would also rise to 5000°C.
Well, journey's end, you would be doomed to stay here. At least, until your spacesuit can handle it. There's no way back now.
In fact, as the human body is made of 18% carbon, the pressure in Uranus' core could cause parts of its body to transform into pure diamond. What a spectacular and not at all pleasant way to end this one-way trip to the center of Uranus.
