Uranus is tipped so far over it does not spin like other planets so much as roll around the Sun, and the result is brutal: each pole spends about 42 years in continuous sunlight, then roughly 42 years in unbroken darkness

Uranus is tipped so far over it does not spin like other planets so much as roll around the Sun, and the result is brutal: each pole spends about 42 years in continuous sunlight, then roughly 42 years in unbroken darkness

Imagine standing at the north pole of a planet and watching the Sun remain above the horizon for four decades without setting. Then the Sun slides down, and the same pole goes dark for another forty-odd years, with no sunrise in that stretch. That is what happens on Uranus. The reason is one number so far outside the solar system norm that it reads like a typo. The tilt that broke the rulebook Every planet leans to some degree. Earth leans about…