title: Snooker

text: Non-professional snooker (including youth competition) is governed by the International Billiards and Snooker Federation (IBSF). Events held specifically for seniors are handled by the WPBSA under the World Seniors Tour. World Disability Billiards and Snooker (WDBS) is a WPBSA subsidiary that organises events and playing aids in snooker and other cue sports for people with disabilities. Snooker is a mixed gender sport that affords men and women the same opportunities to progress at all levels of the game. While the main professional tour is open to female players, there is also a separate women's tour organised by World Women's Snooker (formerly the World Ladies Billiards and Snooker Association) that encourages female players to participate in the sport. The winner of the World Women's Snooker Championship now receives a two-year tour card to the main professional tour.


title: Snooker

text: The highest competition in the amateur sport is the IBSF World Snooker Championship, while the highest level of the senior sport is the World Seniors Championship. On the women's tour, the leading tournament is the World Women's Snooker Championship. The reigning champion is Reanne Evans who has held the women's world title twelve times since first winning the championship in 2005. Evans has also participated on the World Snooker Tour and has taken part in the qualifying rounds of the main world championship on five occasions, reaching the second round in 2017. The most prestigious amateur event in England is the English Amateur Championship; first held in 1916, this is the oldest snooker competition still being played in the world.


title: Snooker

text: Several players, such as Ronnie O'Sullivan, Mark Allen and Steve Davis, have warned that there are too many tournaments during the season, and that players risk burnout. In 2012, O'Sullivan played fewer tournaments to spend more time with his children, and ended the 2012–13 season ranked 19th in the world; he played only one tournament in 2013, the World Championship, which he won. He has suggested that a "breakaway tour" with fewer events would be beneficial to the sport, but as of 2018 no such tour has been organised.


title: Snooker

text: Some leagues have allowed clubs to exclude female players from tournaments. League committee leadership has defended the practice: "If we lose two of these clubs [with the men-only policies] we would lose four teams and we can't afford to lose four teams otherwise we would have no league." A World Women's Snooker spokesperson commented, "It is disappointing and unacceptable that in 2019 that players such as Rebecca Kenna have been the victim of antiquated discriminatory practices." The All-Party Parliamentary Group for Snooker said, "The group believes that being prevented from playing in a club because of gender is archaic."


title: Snooker

text: After the creation of the World Snooker Championship, snooker overcame billiards as the most popular cue sport in the United Kingdom. Joe Davis was world champion for twenty years, retiring unbeaten from the event after claiming his fifteenth world title in 1946 when the tournament was reinstated after the Second World War. He was only beaten on level terms by his brother Fred Davis, all coming after his retirement from the game. He did lose matches in handicapped tournaments, but on level terms these defeats were the only losses of his entire career.


title: Snooker

text: By 1947, Fred Davis was deemed ready by his brother to become world champion, but lost the world final to Walter Donaldson. Fred Davis and Donaldson would contest the next four finals. After the abandonment of the World Championship in 1953, with the 1952 event boycotted by British professionals, the World Professional Match-play Championship became the unofficial world championship. Fred Davis won the tournament every year from 1952 to 1956, but did not enter the 1957 event. John Pulman won the 1957 event and was the most successful player of the 1960s, won the event seven times between April 1964 and March 1968 when the World Championship was contested on a challenge basis. This winning streak ended when the tournament reverted to a knockout format in 1969. Ray Reardon was the dominant force in the 1970s, winning six world titles (1970, 1973–1976, and 1978), and John Spencer won three (1969, 1971 and 1977).


title: Snooker

text: Steve Davis (no relation to Joe or Fred) won his first World Championship in 1981, becoming the 11th world champion since 1927. He won six world titles (1981, 1983, 1984, and 1987–1989) and competed in the most-watched snooker match, the 1985 World Snooker Championship final, which he lost to Dennis Taylor. Stephen Hendry became the 14th world champion in 1990, aged 21 years and 106 days; he is the youngest player ever to have lifted the world title. Hendry dominated the sport through the 1990s, winning the World Championship seven times (1990, 1992–1996, and 1999).


title: Snooker

text: Ronnie O'Sullivan has won the most world titles since 2000, having done so on seven occasions (2001, 2004, 2008, 2012, 2013, 2020 and 2022), while John Higgins and Selby have both won four times (Higgins in 1998, 2007, 2009, and 2011; Selby in 2014, 2016, 2017, and 2021), and Mark Williams three times (2000, 2003, and 2018). O'Sullivan is the only player to have made 1,000 career century breaks, and holds the record for the most maximum breaks compiled in professional competition, having achieved his 15th in October 2018. O'Sullivan also holds the record for the most ranking titles (39) and most Triple Crown titles (21) achieved in the sport.


title: Snooker

text: Some versions of snooker, such as six-red or ten-red snooker, are played with almost identical rules but with fewer object balls, reducing the time taken to play each frame. The Six-red World Championship, contested annually in Bangkok, Thailand, has been a regular fixture on the World Snooker Tour since 2012. The ten-red game has had a World Women's 10-Red Championship held annually in Leeds, England, from 2017 to 2019.


title: Snooker

text: Geographic variations exist in the United States and Brazil, while speed versions of the standard game have been developed in the United Kingdom. American snooker is an amateur version of the game played almost exclusively in the United States. With simplified rules and generally played on smaller tables, this variant dates back to 1925. "Sinuca brasileira" (or "Brazilian snooker") is a variant of snooker played exclusively in Brazil, with fully divergent rules from the standard game, and using only one red ball instead of fifteen. At the start of the game, the single red is positioned halfway between the pink ball and the side cushion and the break-off shot cannot be used to pot the red or place the opponent in a snooker. The Snooker Shoot Out is a variant snooker tournament, first staged in 1990, featuring single-frame matches for an accelerated format. The idea was resurrected in 2011 with a modified version that was added to the professional tour in the 2010–11 season and upgraded to a ranking event in 2017.


title: Snooker

text: Other games were designed with an increased number of object balls in play. One example is "snooker plus", which included two additional colours: an orange ball worth eight points positioned between pink and blue, and a purple ball worth 10 points positioned between brown and blue, increasing the maximum possible break to 210. Introduced at the 1959 News of the World Snooker Plus Tournament, this variant failed to gain popularity and is no longer played. Power Snooker was a short-lived cue sport based on aspects of snooker and pool, which was first played competitively as the 2010 Power Snooker Masters Trophy and again in 2011, but the format failed to gain widespread appeal and was discontinued. Using nine red balls racked in a diamond-shaped pack at the start of the game, the matches were limited to a fixed game-play period of 30 minutes. Tenball was a snooker variant designed specifically for the television show of the same name, presented by Phillip Schofield, which lasted for one series. A yellow and black ball worth ten points was added between the blue and pink, and the game had a slightly revised set of rules. Snookerpool is a variant of snooker that is played with traditional snooker balls on an American pool table with the larger pockets (11ft x 5.5ft).


title: Uranus

text: Uranus is the seventh planet from the Sun. Its name is a reference to the Greek god of the sky, Uranus (Caelus), who, according to Greek mythology, was the great-grandfather of Ares (Mars), grandfather of Zeus (Jupiter) and father of Cronus (Saturn). It has the third-largest planetary radius and fourth-largest planetary mass in the Solar System. Uranus is similar in composition to Neptune, and both have bulk chemical compositions which differ from that of the larger gas giants Jupiter and Saturn. For this reason, scientists often classify Uranus and Neptune as "ice giants" to distinguish them from the other giant planets.


title: Uranus

text: As with gas giants, ice giants also lack a well defined "solid surface." Uranus's atmosphere is similar to Jupiter's and Saturn's in its primary composition of hydrogen and helium, but it contains more "ices" such as water, ammonia, and methane, along with traces of other hydrocarbons. It has the coldest planetary atmosphere in the Solar System, with a minimum temperature of , and has a complex, layered cloud structure with water thought to make up the lowest clouds and methane the uppermost layer of clouds. The interior of Uranus is mainly composed of ices and rock.


title: Uranus

text: Like the other giant planets, Uranus has a ring system, a magnetosphere, and numerous moons. The Uranian system has a unique configuration because its axis of rotation is tilted sideways, nearly into the plane of its solar orbit. Its north and south poles, therefore, lie where most other planets have their equators. In 1986, images from "Voyager 2" showed Uranus as an almost featureless planet in visible light, without the cloud bands or storms associated with the other giant planets. "Voyager 2" remains the only spacecraft to visit the planet. Observations from Earth have shown seasonal change and increased weather activity as Uranus approached its equinox in 2007. Wind speeds can reach .


title: Uranus

text: Like the classical planets, Uranus is visible to the naked eye, but it was never recognised as a planet by ancient observers because of its dimness and slow orbit. Sir William Herschel first observed Uranus on 13 March 1781, leading to its discovery as a planet, expanding the known boundaries of the Solar System for the first time in history and making Uranus the first planet classified as such with the aid of a telescope.


title: Uranus

text: Uranus had been observed on many occasions before its recognition as a planet, but it was generally mistaken for a star. Possibly the earliest known observation was by Hipparchos, who in 128 BC might have recorded it as a star for his star catalogue that was later incorporated into Ptolemy's "Almagest". The earliest definite sighting was in 1690, when John Flamsteed observed it at least six times, cataloguing it as 34 Tauri. The French astronomer Pierre Charles Le Monnier observed Uranus at least twelve times between 1750 and 1769, including on four consecutive nights.


title: Uranus

text: Sir William Herschel observed Uranus on 13 March 1781 from the garden of his house at 19 New King Street in Bath, Somerset, England (now the Herschel Museum of Astronomy), and initially reported it (on 26 April 1781) as a comet. With a homemade 6.2-inch reflecting telescope, Herschel "engaged in a series of observations on the parallax of the fixed stars."


title: Uranus

text: Herschel recorded in his journal: "In the quartile near ζ Tauri ... either [a] Nebulous star or perhaps a comet." On 17 March he noted: "I looked for the Comet or Nebulous Star and found that it is a Comet, for it has changed its place." When he presented his discovery to the Royal Society, he continued to assert that he had found a comet, but also implicitly compared it to a planet:


title: Uranus

text: Herschel notified the Astronomer Royal Nevil Maskelyne of his discovery and received this flummoxed reply from him on 23 April 1781: "I don't know what to call it. It is as likely to be a regular planet moving in an orbit nearly circular to the sun as a Comet moving in a very eccentric ellipsis. I have not yet seen any coma or tail to it."


title: Uranus

text: Although Herschel continued to describe his new object as a comet, other astronomers had already begun to suspect otherwise. Finnish-Swedish astronomer Anders Johan Lexell, working in Russia, was the first to compute the orbit of the new object. Its nearly circular orbit led him to a conclusion that it was a planet rather than a comet. Berlin astronomer Johann Elert Bode described Herschel's discovery as "a moving star that can be deemed a hitherto unknown planet-like object circulating beyond the orbit of Saturn". Bode concluded that its near-circular orbit was more like a planet's than a comet's.


title: Uranus

text: The object was soon universally accepted as a new planet. By 1783, Herschel acknowledged this to Royal Society president Joseph Banks: "By the observation of the most eminent Astronomers in Europe it appears that the new star, which I had the honour of pointing out to them in March 1781, is a Primary Planet of our Solar System." In recognition of his achievement, King George III gave Herschel an annual stipend of £200 on condition that he move to Windsor so that the Royal Family could look through his telescopes ().


title: Uranus

text: The name of Uranus references the ancient Greek deity of the sky Uranus (), known as Caelus in Roman mythology, the father of Cronus (Saturn) and grandfather of Zeus (Jupiter), which was rendered as in Latin (). It is the only planet whose English name is derived directly from a figure of Greek mythology. The adjectival form of Uranus is "Uranian". The pronunciation of the name "Uranus" preferred among astronomers is , with stress on the first syllable as in Latin , in contrast to , with stress on the second syllable and a long "a", though both are considered acceptable.


title: Uranus

text: Consensus on the name was not reached until almost 70 years after the planet's discovery. During the original discussions following discovery, Maskelyne asked Herschel to "do the astronomical world the to give a name to your planet, which is entirely your own, [and] which we are so much obliged to you for the discovery of". In response to Maskelyne's request, Herschel decided to name the object (George's Star), or the "Georgian Planet" in honour of his new patron, King George III. He explained this decision in a letter to Joseph Banks:


title: Uranus

text: Herschel's proposed name was not popular outside of Britain and Hanover, and alternatives were soon proposed. Astronomer Jérôme Lalande proposed that it be named "Herschel" in honour of its discoverer. Swedish astronomer Erik Prosperin proposed the name "Neptune", which was supported by other astronomers who liked the idea to commemorate the victories of the British Royal Naval fleet in the course of the American Revolutionary War by calling the new planet even "Neptune George III" or "Neptune Great Britain".


title: Uranus

text: In a March 1782 treatise, Bode proposed "Uranus", the Latinised version of the Greek god of the sky, Ouranos. Bode argued that the name should follow the mythology so as not to stand out as different from the other planets, and that Uranus was an appropriate name as the father of the first generation of the Titans. He also noted that elegance of the name in that just as Saturn was the father of Jupiter, the new planet should be named after the father of Saturn. Bode was however apparently unaware that "Uranus" was only the Latinised form of the titular deity, and his Roman equivalent was Caelus. In 1789, Bode's Royal Academy colleague Martin Klaproth named his newly discovered element uranium in support of Bode's choice. Ultimately, Bode's suggestion became the most widely used, and became universal in 1850 when HM Nautical Almanac Office, the final holdout, switched from using "Georgium Sidus" to "Uranus".


title: Uranus

text: Uranus has two astronomical symbols. The first to be proposed, , was proposed by Johann Gottfried Köhler at Bode's request in 1782. Köhler suggested that the new planet be given the symbol for platinum, which had been described scientifically only 30 years before. As there was no alchemical symbol for platinum, he suggested ⛢ or ⛢, a combination of the planetary-metal symbols ☉ (gold) and ♂ (iron), as platinum (or 'white gold') is found mixed with iron. Bode thought that an upright orientation, ⛢, fit better with the symbols for the other planets while remaining distinct. This symbol predominates in modern astronomical use in the rare cases that symbols are used at all. The second symbol, , was suggested by Lalande in 1784. In a letter to Herschel, Lalande described it as "" ("a globe surmounted by the first letter of your surname"). The second symbol is nearly universal in astrology.


title: Uranus

text: Uranus is called by a variety of names in other languages. In Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese, its name is literally translated as the "sky king star" (). In Thai, its official name is (), as in English. Its other name in Thai is (, Star of Mṛtyu), after the Sanskrit word for 'death', (). In Mongolian, its name is (), translated as 'King of the Sky', reflecting its namesake god's role as the ruler of the heavens. In Hawaiian, its name is , a loanword for the discoverer Herschel. In Māori, its name is .


title: Uranus

text: Uranus orbits the Sun once every 84 years, taking an average of seven years to pass through each of the dozen constellations of the zodiac. In 2033, the planet will have made its third complete orbit around the Sun since being discovered in 1781. The planet has returned to the point of its discovery northeast of Zeta Tauri twice since then, on 25 March 1865 and 29 March 1949. Uranus will return to this location again on 3 April 2033. Its average distance from the Sun is roughly . The difference between its minimum and maximum distance from the Sun is 1.8 AU, larger than that of any other planet, though not as large as that of dwarf planet Pluto. The intensity of sunlight varies inversely with the square of distance, and so on Uranus (at about 20 times the distance from the Sun compared to Earth) it is about 1/400 the intensity of light on Earth.


title: Uranus

text: The orbital elements of Uranus were first calculated in 1783 by Pierre-Simon Laplace. With time, discrepancies began to appear between the predicted and observed orbits, and in 1841, John Couch Adams first proposed that the differences might be due to the gravitational tug of an unseen planet. In 1845, Urbain Le Verrier began his own independent research into Uranus's orbit. On 23 September 1846, Johann Gottfried Galle located a new planet, later named Neptune, at nearly the position predicted by Le Verrier.


title: Uranus

text: The rotational period of the interior of Uranus is 17 hours, 14 minutes. As on all the giant planets, its upper atmosphere experiences strong winds in the direction of rotation. At some latitudes, such as about 60 degrees south, visible features of the atmosphere move much faster, making a full rotation in as little as 14 hours.


title: Uranus

text: The Uranian axis of rotation is approximately parallel with the plane of the Solar System, with an axial tilt of 97.77° (as defined by prograde rotation). This gives it seasonal changes completely unlike those of the other planets. Near the solstice, one pole faces the Sun continuously and the other faces away, with only a narrow strip around the equator experiencing a rapid day–night cycle, with the Sun low over the horizon. At the other side of Uranus's orbit the orientation of the poles towards the Sun is reversed. Each pole gets around 42 years of continuous sunlight, followed by 42 years of darkness. Near the time of the equinoxes, the Sun faces the equator of Uranus giving a period of day–night cycles similar to those seen on most of the other planets.


title: Uranus

text: One result of this axis orientation is that, averaged over the Uranian year, the near-polar regions of Uranus receive a greater energy input from the Sun than its equatorial regions. Nevertheless, Uranus is hotter at its equator than at its poles. The underlying mechanism that causes this is unknown. The reason for Uranus's unusual axial tilt is also not known with certainty, but the usual speculation is that during the formation of the Solar System, an Earth-sized protoplanet collided with Uranus, causing the skewed orientation. Research by Jacob Kegerreis of Durham University suggests that the tilt resulted from a rock larger than the Earth crashing into the planet 3 to 4 billion years ago.


title: Uranus

text: Uranus's south pole was pointed almost directly at the Sun at the time of "Voyager 2" flyby in 1986. The labelling of this pole as "south" uses the definition currently endorsed by the International Astronomical Union, namely that the north pole of a planet or satellite is the pole that points above the invariable plane of the Solar System, regardless of the direction the planet is spinning. A different convention is sometimes used, in which a body's north and south poles are defined according to the right-hand rule in relation to the direction of rotation.


title: Uranus

text: The mean apparent magnitude of Uranus is 5.68 with a standard deviation of 0.17, while the extremes are 5.38 and 6.03. This range of brightness is near the limit of naked eye visibility. Much of the variability is dependent upon the planetary latitudes being illuminated from the Sun and viewed from the Earth. Its angular diameter is between 3.4 and 3.7 arcseconds, compared with 16 to 20 arcseconds for Saturn and 32 to 45 arcseconds for Jupiter. At opposition, Uranus is visible to the naked eye in dark skies, and becomes an easy target even in urban conditions with binoculars. In larger amateur telescopes with an objective diameter of between 15 and 23 cm, Uranus appears as a pale cyan disk with distinct limb darkening. With a large telescope of 25 cm or wider, cloud patterns, as well as some of the larger satellites, such as Titania and Oberon, may be visible.


title: Uranus

text: Uranus's mass is roughly 14.5 times that of Earth, making it the least massive of the giant planets. Its diameter is slightly larger than Neptune's at roughly four times that of Earth. A resulting density of 1.27 g/cm makes Uranus the second least dense planet, after Saturn. This value indicates that it is made primarily of various ices, such as water, ammonia, and methane. The total mass of ice in Uranus's interior is not precisely known, because different figures emerge depending on the model chosen; it must be between 9.3 and 13.5 Earth masses. Hydrogen and helium constitute only a small part of the total, with between 0.5 and 1.5 Earth masses. The remainder of the non-ice mass (0.5 to 3.7 Earth masses) is accounted for by rocky material.


title: Uranus

text: The standard model of Uranus's structure is that it consists of three layers: a rocky (silicate/iron–nickel) core in the centre, an icy mantle in the middle and an outer gaseous hydrogen/helium envelope. The core is relatively small, with a mass of only 0.55 Earth masses and a radius less than 20% of Uranus'; the mantle comprises its bulk, with around 13.4 Earth masses, and the upper atmosphere is relatively insubstantial, weighing about 0.5 Earth masses and extending for the last 20% of Uranus's radius. Uranus's core density is around 9 g/cm, with a pressure in the centre of 8 million bars (800 GPa) and a temperature of about 5000 K. The ice mantle is not in fact composed of ice in the conventional sense, but of a hot and dense fluid consisting of water, ammonia and other volatiles. This fluid, which has a high electrical conductivity, is sometimes called a water–ammonia ocean.


title: Uranus

text: The extreme pressure and temperature deep within Uranus may break up the methane molecules, with the carbon atoms condensing into crystals of diamond that rain down through the mantle like hailstones. This phenomenon is similar to diamond rains that are theorised by scientists to exist on Jupiter, Saturn, and Neptune. Very-high-pressure experiments at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory suggest that the base of the mantle may comprise an ocean of metallic liquid carbon, perhaps with floating solid 'diamond-bergs'.


title: Uranus

text: The bulk compositions of Uranus and Neptune are different from those of Jupiter and Saturn, with ice dominating over gases, hence justifying their separate classification as ice giants. There may be a layer of ionic water where the water molecules break down into a soup of hydrogen and oxygen ions, and deeper down superionic water in which the oxygen crystallises but the hydrogen ions move freely within the oxygen lattice.


title: Uranus

text: Although the model considered above is reasonably standard, it is not unique; other models also satisfy observations. For instance, if substantial amounts of hydrogen and rocky material are mixed in the ice mantle, the total mass of ices in the interior will be lower, and, correspondingly, the total mass of rocks and hydrogen will be higher. Presently available data does not allow a scientific determination of which model is correct. The fluid interior structure of Uranus means that it has no solid surface. The gaseous atmosphere gradually transitions into the internal liquid layers. For the sake of convenience, a revolving oblate spheroid set at the point at which atmospheric pressure equals 1 bar (100 kPa) is conditionally designated as a "surface". It has equatorial and polar radii of and , respectively. This surface is used throughout this article as a zero point for altitudes.


title: Uranus

text: Uranus's internal heat appears markedly lower than that of the other giant planets; in astronomical terms, it has a low thermal flux. Why Uranus's internal temperature is so low is still not understood. Neptune, which is Uranus's near twin in size and composition, radiates 2.61 times as much energy into space as it receives from the Sun, but Uranus radiates hardly any excess heat at all. The total power radiated by Uranus in the far infrared (i.e. heat) part of the spectrum is times the solar energy absorbed in its atmosphere. Uranus's heat flux is only , which is lower than the internal heat flux of Earth of about . The lowest temperature recorded in Uranus's tropopause is , making Uranus the coldest planet in the Solar System.


title: Uranus

text: One of the hypotheses for this discrepancy suggests that when Uranus was hit by a supermassive impactor, which caused it to expel most of its primordial heat, it was left with a depleted core temperature. This impact hypothesis is also used in some attempts to explain the planet's axial tilt. Another hypothesis is that some form of barrier exists in Uranus's upper layers that prevents the core's heat from reaching the surface. For example, convection may take place in a set of compositionally different layers, which may inhibit the upward heat transport; perhaps double diffusive convection is a limiting factor.


title: Uranus

text: In a 2021 study the ice giants' interior conditions were mimicked by compressing water containing minerals like olivine and ferropericlase, thus showing that large amounts of magnesium could be dissolved in the liquid interiors of Uranus and Neptune. If Uranus has more of this magnesium than Neptune it could form a thermal insulation layer, thus potentially explaining the planet's low temperature.


title: Uranus

text: Although there is no well-defined solid surface within Uranus's interior, the outermost part of Uranus's gaseous envelope that is accessible to remote sensing is called its atmosphere. Remote-sensing capability extends down to roughly 300 km below the level, with a corresponding pressure around and temperature of . The tenuous thermosphere extends over two planetary radii from the nominal surface, which is defined to lie at a pressure of 1 bar. The Uranian atmosphere can be divided into three layers: the troposphere, between altitudes of and pressures from 100 to 0.1 bar (10 MPa to 10 kPa); the stratosphere, spanning altitudes between and pressures of between (10 kPa to 10 µPa); and the thermosphere extending from 4,000 km to as high as 50,000 km from the surface. There is no mesosphere.


title: Uranus

text: The composition of Uranus's atmosphere is different from its bulk, consisting mainly of molecular hydrogen and helium. The helium molar fraction, i.e. the number of helium atoms per molecule of gas, is in the upper troposphere, which corresponds to a mass fraction . This value is close to the protosolar helium mass fraction of , indicating that helium has not settled in its centre as it has in the gas giants. The third-most-abundant component of Uranus's atmosphere is methane (). Methane has prominent absorption bands in the visible and near-infrared (IR), making Uranus aquamarine or cyan in colour. Methane molecules account for 2.3% of the atmosphere by molar fraction below the methane cloud deck at the pressure level of ; this represents about 20 to 30 times the carbon abundance found in the Sun. The mixing ratio is much lower in the upper atmosphere due to its extremely low temperature, which lowers the saturation level and causes excess methane to freeze out. The abundances of less volatile compounds such as ammonia, water, and hydrogen sulfide in the deep atmosphere are poorly known. They are probably also higher than solar values. Along with methane, trace amounts of various hydrocarbons are found in the stratosphere of Uranus, which are thought to be produced from methane by photolysis induced by the solar ultraviolet (UV) radiation. They include ethane (), acetylene (), methylacetylene (), and diacetylene (). Spectroscopy has also uncovered traces of water vapour, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide in the upper atmosphere, which can only originate from an external source such as infalling dust and comets.


title: Uranus

text: The troposphere is the lowest and densest part of the atmosphere and is characterised by a decrease in temperature with altitude. The temperature falls from about at the base of the nominal troposphere at −300 km to at 50 km. The temperatures in the coldest upper region of the troposphere (the tropopause) actually vary in the range between depending on planetary latitude. The tropopause region is responsible for the vast majority of Uranus's thermal far infrared emissions, thus determining its effective temperature of .


title: Uranus

text: The troposphere is thought to have a highly complex cloud structure; water clouds are hypothesised to lie in the pressure range of , ammonium hydrosulfide clouds in the range of , ammonia or hydrogen sulfide clouds at between and finally directly detected thin methane clouds at . The troposphere is a dynamic part of the atmosphere, exhibiting strong winds, bright clouds and seasonal changes.


title: Uranus

text: The middle layer of the Uranian atmosphere is the stratosphere, where temperature generally increases with altitude from in the tropopause to between at the base of the thermosphere. The heating of the stratosphere is caused by absorption of solar UV and IR radiation by methane and other hydrocarbons, which form in this part of the atmosphere as a result of methane photolysis. Heat is also conducted from the hot thermosphere. The hydrocarbons occupy a relatively narrow layer at altitudes of between 100 and 300 km corresponding to a pressure range of 1000 to 10 Pa and temperatures of between . The most abundant hydrocarbons are methane, acetylene and ethane with mixing ratios of around relative to hydrogen. The mixing ratio of carbon monoxide is similar at these altitudes. Heavier hydrocarbons and carbon dioxide have mixing ratios three orders of magnitude lower. The abundance ratio of water is around 7. Ethane and acetylene tend to condense in the colder lower part of stratosphere and tropopause (below 10 mBar level) forming haze layers, which may be partly responsible for the bland appearance of Uranus. The concentration of hydrocarbons in the Uranian stratosphere above the haze is significantly lower than in the stratospheres of the other giant planets.


title: Uranus

text: The outermost layer of the Uranian atmosphere is the thermosphere and corona, which has a uniform temperature around 800 to 850 K. The heat sources necessary to sustain such a high level are not understood, as neither the solar UV nor the auroral activity can provide the necessary energy to maintain these temperatures. The weak cooling efficiency due to the lack of hydrocarbons in the stratosphere above 0.1 mBar pressure level may contribute too. In addition to molecular hydrogen, the thermosphere-corona contains many free hydrogen atoms. Their small mass and high temperatures explain why the corona extends as far as , or two Uranian radii, from its surface. This extended corona is a unique feature of Uranus. Its effects include a drag on small particles orbiting Uranus, causing a general depletion of dust in the Uranian rings. The Uranian thermosphere, together with the upper part of the stratosphere, corresponds to the ionosphere of Uranus. Observations show that the ionosphere occupies altitudes from . The Uranian ionosphere is denser than that of either Saturn or Neptune, which may arise from the low concentration of hydrocarbons in the stratosphere. The ionosphere is mainly sustained by solar UV radiation and its density depends on the solar activity. Auroral activity is insignificant as compared to Jupiter and Saturn.


title: Uranus

text: Before the arrival of "Voyager 2", no measurements of the Uranian magnetosphere had been taken, so its nature remained a mystery. Before 1986, scientists had expected the magnetic field of Uranus to be in line with the solar wind, because it would then align with Uranus's poles that lie in the ecliptic.


title: Uranus

text: "Voyager"s observations revealed that Uranus's magnetic field is peculiar, both because it does not originate from its geometric centre, and because it is tilted at 59° from the axis of rotation. In fact the magnetic dipole is shifted from Uranus's centre towards the south rotational pole by as much as one third of the planetary radius. This unusual geometry results in a highly asymmetric magnetosphere, where the magnetic field strength on the surface in the southern hemisphere can be as low as 0.1 gauss (10 µT), whereas in the northern hemisphere it can be as high as 1.1 gauss (110 µT). The average field at the surface is 0.23 gauss (23 µT). Studies of "Voyager 2" data in 2017 suggest that this asymmetry causes Uranus's magnetosphere to connect with the solar wind once a Uranian day, opening the planet to the Sun's particles. In comparison, the magnetic field of Earth is roughly as strong at either pole, and its "magnetic equator" is roughly parallel with its geographical equator. The dipole moment of Uranus is 50 times that of Earth. Neptune has a similarly displaced and tilted magnetic field, suggesting that this may be a common feature of ice giants. One hypothesis is that, unlike the magnetic fields of the terrestrial and gas giants, which are generated within their cores, the ice giants' magnetic fields are generated by motion at relatively shallow depths, for instance, in the water–ammonia ocean. Another possible explanation for the magnetosphere's alignment is that there are oceans of liquid diamond in Uranus's interior that would deter the magnetic field.


title: Uranus

text: Despite its curious alignment, in other respects the Uranian magnetosphere is like those of other planets: it has a bow shock at about 23 Uranian radii ahead of it, a magnetopause at 18 Uranian radii, a fully developed magnetotail, and radiation belts. Overall, the structure of Uranus's magnetosphere is different from Jupiter's and more similar to Saturn's. Uranus's magnetotail trails behind it into space for millions of kilometres and is twisted by its sideways rotation into a long corkscrew.


title: Uranus

text: Uranus's magnetosphere contains charged particles: mainly protons and electrons, with a small amount of H ions. Many of these particles probably derive from the thermosphere. The ion and electron energies can be as high as 4 and 1.2 megaelectronvolts, respectively. The density of low-energy (below 1 kiloelectronvolt) ions in the inner magnetosphere is about 2 cm. The particle population is strongly affected by the Uranian moons, which sweep through the magnetosphere, leaving noticeable gaps. The particle flux is high enough to cause darkening or space weathering of their surfaces on an astronomically rapid timescale of 100,000 years. This may be the cause of the uniformly dark colouration of the Uranian satellites and rings. Uranus has relatively well developed aurorae, which are seen as bright arcs around both magnetic poles. Unlike Jupiter's, Uranus's aurorae seem to be insignificant for the energy balance of the planetary thermosphere. In March 2020, NASA astronomers reported the detection of a large atmospheric magnetic bubble, also known as a plasmoid, released into outer space from the planet Uranus, after reevaluating old data recorded by the "Voyager 2" space probe during a flyby of the planet in 1986.


title: Uranus

text: At ultraviolet and visible wavelengths, Uranus's atmosphere is bland in comparison to the other giant planets, even to Neptune, which it otherwise closely resembles. When "Voyager 2" flew by Uranus in 1986, it observed a total of ten cloud features across the entire planet. One proposed explanation for this dearth of features is that Uranus's internal heat is markedly lower than that of the other giant planets, as stated previously Uranus is the coldest planet in the Solar System.


title: Uranus

text: In 1986, "Voyager 2" found that the visible southern hemisphere of Uranus can be subdivided into two regions: a bright polar cap and dark equatorial bands. Their boundary is located at about −45° of latitude. A narrow band straddling the latitudinal range from −45 to −50° is the brightest large feature on its visible surface. It is called a southern "collar". The cap and collar are thought to be a dense region of methane clouds located within the pressure range of 1.3 to 2 bar (see above). Besides the large-scale banded structure, "Voyager 2" observed ten small bright clouds, most lying several degrees to the north from the collar. In all other respects Uranus looked like a dynamically dead planet in 1986. "Voyager 2" arrived during the height of Uranus's southern summer and could not observe the northern hemisphere. At the beginning of the 21st century, when the northern polar region came into view, the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) and Keck telescope initially observed neither a collar nor a polar cap in the northern hemisphere. So Uranus appeared to be asymmetric: bright near the south pole and uniformly dark in the region north of the southern collar. In 2007, when Uranus passed its equinox, the southern collar almost disappeared, and a faint northern collar emerged near 45° of latitude.


title: Uranus

text: In the 1990s, the number of the observed bright cloud features grew considerably partly because new high-resolution imaging techniques became available. Most were found in the northern hemisphere as it started to become visible. An early explanation—that bright clouds are easier to identify in its dark part, whereas in the southern hemisphere the bright collar masks them – was shown to be incorrect. Nevertheless, there are differences between the clouds of each hemisphere. The northern clouds are smaller, sharper and brighter. They appear to lie at a higher altitude. The lifetime of clouds spans several orders of magnitude. Some small clouds live for hours; at least one southern cloud may have persisted since the "Voyager 2" flyby. Recent observation also discovered that cloud features on Uranus have a lot in common with those on Neptune. For example, the dark spots common on Neptune had never been observed on Uranus before 2006, when the first such feature dubbed Uranus Dark Spot was imaged. The speculation is that Uranus is becoming more Neptune-like during its equinoctial season.


title: Uranus

text: The tracking of numerous cloud features allowed determination of zonal winds blowing in the upper troposphere of Uranus. At the equator winds are retrograde, which means that they blow in the reverse direction to the planetary rotation. Their speeds are from . Wind speeds increase with the distance from the equator, reaching zero values near ±20° latitude, where the troposphere's temperature minimum is located. Closer to the poles, the winds shift to a prograde direction, flowing with Uranus's rotation. Wind speeds continue to increase reaching maxima at ±60° latitude before falling to zero at the poles. Wind speeds at −40° latitude range from . Because the collar obscures all clouds below that parallel, speeds between it and the southern pole are impossible to measure. In contrast, in the northern hemisphere maximum speeds as high as are observed near +50° latitude.


title: Uranus

text: For a short period from March to May 2004, large clouds appeared in the Uranian atmosphere, giving it a Neptune-like appearance. Observations included record-breaking wind speeds of and a persistent thunderstorm referred to as "Fourth of July fireworks". On 23 August 2006, researchers at the Space Science Institute (Boulder, Colorado) and the University of Wisconsin observed a dark spot on Uranus's surface, giving scientists more insight into Uranus atmospheric activity. Why this sudden upsurge in activity occurred is not fully known, but it appears that Uranus's extreme axial tilt results in extreme seasonal variations in its weather. Determining the nature of this seasonal variation is difficult because good data on Uranus's atmosphere has existed for less than 84 years, or one full Uranian year. Photometry over the course of half a Uranian year (beginning in the 1950s) has shown regular variation in the brightness in two spectral bands, with maxima occurring at the solstices and minima occurring at the equinoxes. A similar periodic variation, with maxima at the solstices, has been noted in microwave measurements of the deep troposphere begun in the 1960s. Stratospheric temperature measurements beginning in the 1970s also showed maximum values near the 1986 solstice. The majority of this variability is thought to occur owing to changes in the viewing geometry.


title: Uranus

text: There are some indications that physical seasonal changes are happening in Uranus. Although Uranus is known to have a bright south polar region, the north pole is fairly dim, which is incompatible with the model of the seasonal change outlined above. During its previous northern solstice in 1944, Uranus displayed elevated levels of brightness, which suggests that the north pole was not always so dim. This information implies that the visible pole brightens some time before the solstice and darkens after the equinox. Detailed analysis of the visible and microwave data revealed that the periodical changes of brightness are not completely symmetrical around the solstices, which also indicates a change in the meridional albedo patterns. In the 1990s, as Uranus moved away from its solstice, Hubble and ground-based telescopes revealed that the south polar cap darkened noticeably (except the southern collar, which remained bright), whereas the northern hemisphere demonstrated increasing activity, such as cloud formations and stronger winds, bolstering expectations that it should brighten soon. This indeed happened in 2007 when it passed an equinox: a faint northern polar collar arose, and the southern collar became nearly invisible, although the zonal wind profile remained slightly asymmetric, with northern winds being somewhat slower than southern.


title: Uranus

text: The mechanism of these physical changes is still not clear. Near the summer and winter solstices, Uranus's hemispheres lie alternately either in full glare of the Sun's rays or facing deep space. The brightening of the sunlit hemisphere is thought to result from the local thickening of the methane clouds and haze layers located in the troposphere. The bright collar at −45° latitude is also connected with methane clouds. Other changes in the southern polar region can be explained by changes in the lower cloud layers. The variation of the microwave emission from Uranus is probably caused by changes in the deep tropospheric circulation, because thick polar clouds and haze may inhibit convection. Now that the spring and autumn equinoxes are arriving on Uranus, the dynamics are changing and convection can occur again.


title: Uranus

text: It is argued that the differences between the ice giants and the gas giants arise from their formation history. The Solar System is hypothesised to have formed from a rotating disk of gas and dust known as the presolar nebula. Much of the nebula's gas, primarily hydrogen and helium, formed the Sun, and the dust grains collected together to form the first protoplanets. As the planets grew, some of them eventually accreted enough matter for their gravity to hold on to the nebula's leftover gas. The more gas they held onto, the larger they became; the larger they became, the more gas they held onto until a critical point was reached, and their size began to increase exponentially. The ice giants, with only a few Earth masses of nebular gas, never reached that critical point. Recent simulations of planetary migration have suggested that both ice giants formed closer to the Sun than their present positions, and moved outwards after formation (the Nice model).


title: Uranus

text: Uranus has 27 known natural satellites. The names of these satellites are chosen from characters in the works of Shakespeare and Alexander Pope. The five main satellites are Miranda, Ariel, Umbriel, Titania, and Oberon. The Uranian satellite system is the least massive among those of the giant planets; the combined mass of the five major satellites would be less than half that of Triton (largest moon of Neptune) alone. The largest of Uranus's satellites, Titania, has a radius of only , or less than half that of the Moon, but slightly more than Rhea, the second-largest satellite of Saturn, making Titania the eighth-largest moon in the Solar System. Uranus's satellites have relatively low albedos; ranging from 0.20 for Umbriel to 0.35 for Ariel (in green light). They are ice–rock conglomerates composed of roughly 50% ice and 50% rock. The ice may include ammonia and carbon dioxide.


title: Uranus

text: Among the Uranian satellites, Ariel appears to have the youngest surface, with the fewest impact craters, and Umbriel the oldest. Miranda has fault canyons deep, terraced layers, and a chaotic variation in surface ages and features. Miranda's past geologic activity is thought to have been driven by tidal heating at a time when its orbit was more eccentric than currently, probably as a result of a former 3:1 orbital resonance with Umbriel. Extensional processes associated with upwelling diapirs are the likely origin of Miranda's 'racetrack'-like coronae. Ariel is thought to have once been held in a 4:1 resonance with Titania.


title: Uranus

text: Uranus has at least one horseshoe orbiter occupying the Sun–Uranus Lagrangian point—a gravitationally unstable region at 180° in its orbit, 83982 Crantor. Crantor moves inside Uranus's co-orbital region on a complex, temporary horseshoe orbit.


title: Uranus

text: The Uranian rings are composed of extremely dark particles, which vary in size from micrometres to a fraction of a metre. Thirteen distinct rings are presently known, the brightest being the ε ring. All except two rings of Uranus are extremely narrow – they are usually a few kilometres wide. The rings are probably quite young; the dynamics considerations indicate that they did not form with Uranus. The matter in the rings may once have been part of a moon (or moons) that was shattered by high-speed impacts. From numerous pieces of debris that formed as a result of those impacts, only a few particles survived, in stable zones corresponding to the locations of the present rings.


title: Uranus

text: William Herschel described a possible ring around Uranus in 1789. This sighting is generally considered doubtful, because the rings are quite faint, and in the two following centuries none were noted by other observers. Still, Herschel made an accurate description of the epsilon ring's size, its angle relative to Earth, its red colour, and its apparent changes as Uranus travelled around the Sun. The ring system was definitively discovered on 10 March 1977 by James L. Elliot, Edward W. Dunham, and Jessica Mink using the Kuiper Airborne Observatory. The discovery was serendipitous; they planned to use the occultation of the star SAO 158687 (also known as HD 128598) by Uranus to study its atmosphere. When their observations were analysed, they found that the star had disappeared briefly from view five times both before and after it disappeared behind Uranus. They concluded that there must be a ring system around Uranus. Later they detected four additional rings. The rings were directly imaged when "Voyager 2" passed Uranus in 1986. "Voyager 2" also discovered two additional faint rings, bringing the total number to eleven.


title: Uranus

text: In December 2005, the Hubble Space Telescope detected a pair of previously unknown rings. The largest is located twice as far from Uranus as the previously known rings. These new rings are so far from Uranus that they are called the "outer" ring system. Hubble also spotted two small satellites, one of which, Mab, shares its orbit with the outermost newly discovered ring. The new rings bring the total number of Uranian rings to 13. In April 2006, images of the new rings from the Keck Observatory yielded the colours of the outer rings: the outermost is blue and the other one red. One hypothesis concerning the outer ring's blue colour is that it is composed of minute particles of water ice from the surface of Mab that are small enough to scatter blue light. In contrast, Uranus's inner rings appear grey.


title: Uranus

text: In 1986, NASA's "Voyager 2" interplanetary probe encountered Uranus. This flyby remains the only investigation of Uranus carried out from a short distance and no other visits are planned. "Voyager 1" was unable to visit Uranus because investigation of Saturn's moon Titan was considered a priority. This trajectory took "Voyager 1" out of the plane of the ecliptic, ending its planetary science mission. Launched in 1977, "Voyager 2" made its closest approach to Uranus on 24 January 1986, coming within of the cloudtops, before continuing its journey to Neptune. The spacecraft studied the structure and chemical composition of Uranus's atmosphere, including its unique weather, caused by its axial tilt of 97.77°. It made the first detailed investigations of its five largest moons and discovered 10 new ones. Voyager 2 examined all nine of the system's known rings and discovered two more. It also studied the magnetic field, its irregular structure, its tilt and its unique corkscrew magnetotail caused by Uranus's sideways orientation.


title: Uranus

text: The possibility of sending the "Cassini" spacecraft from Saturn to Uranus was evaluated during a mission extension planning phase in 2009, but was ultimately rejected in favour of destroying it in the Saturnian atmosphere. It would have taken about twenty years to get to the Uranian system after departing Saturn. A Uranus orbiter and probe was recommended by the 2013–2022 Planetary Science Decadal Survey published in 2011; the proposal envisages launch during 2020–2023 and a 13-year cruise to Uranus. A Uranus entry probe could use Pioneer Venus Multiprobe heritage and descend to 1–5 atmospheres. The ESA evaluated a "medium-class" mission called Uranus Pathfinder. A New Frontiers Uranus Orbiter has been evaluated and recommended in the study, "The Case for a Uranus Orbiter". Such a mission is aided by the ease with which a relatively big mass can be sent to the systemover 1500 kg with an Atlas 521 and 12-year journey. For more concepts see proposed Uranus missions.


title: Uranus

text: In April, 2022, the next Planetary Science Decadal Survey placed its highest priority for the next "flagship" project on a full package mission (orbiter and probe) to Uranus, with a projected launch window starting in 2031. The "dearth" of ice giant science was key to its prioritization. Another key issue was that such a mission would use extant technology, and not require development of other instruments and systems to be successful.


title: Finneas O'Connell

text: Finneas Baird O'Connell (born July 30, 1997), known mononymously as Finneas (stylized in all caps), is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, and actor. He has written and produced music for various artists, most notably his sister, Billie Eilish. He has won eight Grammy Awards among 13 total nominations, including nominations for the Big Four categories. He has made history as the youngest act to win the Producer of the Year, Non-Classical category. For his work with Eilish, he has won Record of the Year twice in a row, Album of the Year, Song of the Year, Best Pop Vocal Album, and Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical. He was also nominated for Best New Artist for his solo work. Their song "No Time to Die" from the film of the same name earned him an Academy Award, a Golden Globe and another Grammy.


title: Finneas O'Connell

text: Finneas has released several singles as a solo artist, and his debut EP, "Blood Harmony", was released in October 2019. The EP includes "Let's Fall in Love for the Night", his most successful song to date, peaking at number 17 on the US "Billboard" Alternative Songs chart. His debut studio album "Optimist" was released through Interscope Records in October 2021.


title: Finneas O'Connell

text: Finneas starred in the 2013 independent film "Life Inside Out". He is also known for his role as Alistair in the Fox musical comedy-drama series "Glee". He has also made an appearance on the American sitcom "Modern Family".


title: Finneas O'Connell

text: Finneas was born in Los Angeles to actress and screenwriter Maggie Baird and actor Patrick O'Connell, both of whom are also musicians. Finneas is of Irish and Scottish descent. In 2010, at age 12, he took a songwriting class with his mother, and began writing and producing songs.


title: Finneas O'Connell

text: Finneas has said his experience playing characters helped with writing music for his sister Billie Eilish, because he writes from her perspective and for her vocal range. He stated: "Being able to hear an artist and emulate them has been a huge part of being successful as a producer and co-writer". When he writes for his sister, he wants to "write a song that I think she'll relate to and enjoy singing and empathise with the lyrics and make her own", and when he writes with her he tries to "help her tell whatever story she's trying to tell, bounce ideas off of her, listen to her ideas."


title: Finneas O'Connell

text: Finneas had written and produced his song "Ocean Eyes" originally for his band, and gave it to Eilish when her dance teacher asked them to write a song for a choreography. They posted the song on SoundCloud, garnering praise from various websites. Finneas's manager reached out to him in November 2015 to talk about Eilish's potential. Finneas then helped Eilish sign to the A&R company Platoon. He co-wrote and produced Eilish's debut EP "Don't Smile at Me" (2017), which peaked at number 14 on the US "Billboard" 200. Finneas also co-wrote and produced Eilish's debut studio album, "When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?" (2019), which debuted atop the US and UK charts. He won the 2020 Grammy Awards for Producer of the Year, Non-Classical; Record of the Year and Song of the Year for Eilish's "Bad Guy"; and Album of the Year and Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical for "When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?"


title: Finneas O'Connell

text: He has also been known to work with Grammy winners the Coutinho twins. He produced the 2019 single "Lose You to Love Me" by Selena Gomez, which peaked at number one on the "Billboard" Hot 100, and two tracks on the 2019 album "Romance" by Camila Cabello. He also produced "Moral of the Story" by Ashe, and collaborated with John Legend on an unreleased song. O'Connell composed the score for the 2021 teen drama film "The Fallout".


title: Finneas O'Connell

text: He is the lead singer and songwriter of the band The Slightlys, which played the Warped Tour in 2015. His first solo single, "New Girl", was released in 2016, with the music video released in 2019. In 2017, he released the single "I'm in Love Without You", and eight singles in 2018: "Break My Heart Again", "Heaven", "Life Moves On", "Landmine", "Hollywood Forever", "College", "Luck Pusher", and "Let's Fall in Love for the Night". In early 2019, Finneas played his first sold-out headline shows in New York and Los Angeles.


title: Finneas O'Connell

text: His debut EP, "Blood Harmony", was released on October 4, 2019. The EP's first single, "I Lost a Friend", was released on June 25, 2019, while the second single, "Shelter", was released on August 22, 2019, and the third single, "I Don't Miss You At All", on September 20, 2019. In October 2019, he embarked on his first headlining tour, in five cities in the US, in addition to a performance at Austin City Limits.


title: Finneas O'Connell

text: On August 7, 2020, he released a surprise deluxe version of "Blood Harmony", featuring two new tracks, "Break My Heart Again" and "Let's Fall in Love for the Night (1964)", the latter being an alternate version of the sixth track, "Let's Fall in Love for the Night". About two weeks later, O'Connell released a single titled "What They'll Say About Us". It peaked at number 17 on the US "Billboard" Alternative Songs chart. On October 21, Finneas released his single "Can't Wait to Be Dead" about his love-hate relationship with the Internet, along with a visual directed by Constellation Jones the following day.


title: Finneas O'Connell

text: Finneas is one of 12 artists featured on Ringo Starr's 2021 EP "Zoom In", contributing backing vocals to the song "Here's to the Nights". On March 2, 2021, Finneas and Ashe released a collaboration titled "Till Forever Falls Apart", which he co-wrote and produced.


title: Finneas O'Connell

text: On August 5, 2021, Finneas announced that his debut studio album "Optimist" would be released on October 15, 2021 through Interscope Records, and shared its lead single "A Concert Six Months from Now". He also composed the scores to the films "The Fallout" (2021), and "Vengeance" (2022).


title: Finneas O'Connell

text: In 2011, Finneas played a student in the comedy film "Bad Teacher". In 2013, he co-starred in "Life Inside Out", written by and starring his mother Maggie Baird and directed by Jill D'Agnenica. He had recurring guest roles on "Modern Family" and "Aquarius", and played Alistair in the final season of the musical comedy-drama television series "Glee" in 2015.


title: Finneas O'Connell

text: Finneas is based in Los Angeles. He has been in a relationship with YouTuber Claudia Sulewski since September 2018. His single "Claudia" was written after the night they met.


title: Operation Paperclip

text: Operation Paperclip was a secret United States intelligence program in which more than 1,600 German scientists, engineers, and technicians were taken from the former Nazi Germany to the U.S. for government employment after the end of World War II in Europe, between 1945 and 1959. Conducted by the Joint Intelligence Objectives Agency (JIOA), it was largely carried out by special agents of the U.S. Army's Counterintelligence Corps (CIC). Many of these personnel were former members and some were former leaders of the Nazi Party.


title: Operation Paperclip

text: In February 1945, Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF) set up T-Force, or Special Sections Subdivision, which grew to over 2,000 personnel by June. T-Force examined 5,000 German targets with a high priority on synthetic rubber and oil catalysts, new designs in armored equipment, V-2 (rocket) weapons, jet and rocket propelled aircraft, naval equipment, field radios, secret writing chemicals, aero medicine research, gliders, and "scientific and industrial personalities”.


title: Operation Paperclip

text: When large numbers of German scientists began to be discovered in late April, Special Sections Subdivision set up the Enemy Personnel Exploitation Section to manage and interrogate them. The Enemy Personnel Exploitation Section established a detention center, DUSTBIN, first in Paris and later in Kransberg Castle outside Frankfurt. The US Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) established the first secret recruitment program, called Operation Overcast, on July 20, 1945, initially "to assist in shortening the Japanese war and to aid our postwar military research". The term "Overcast" was the name first given by the German scientists' family members for the housing camp where they were held in Bavaria. In late summer 1945, the JCS established the JIOA, a subcommittee of the Joint Intelligence Community, to directly oversee Operation Overcast and later Operation Paperclip. The JIOA representatives included the army's director of intelligence, the chief of naval intelligence, the assistant chief of Air Staff-2 (air force intelligence), and a representative from the State Department. In November 1945, Operation Overcast was renamed Operation Paperclip by Ordnance Corps officers, who would attach a paperclip to the folders of those rocket experts whom they wished to employ in the United States.


title: Operation Paperclip

text: The primary purpose for Operation Paperclip was U.S. military advantage in the Soviet–American Cold War and the Space Race. The Soviet Union responded by relocating more than 2,200 German specialists—a total of more than 6,000 people including family members—with Operation Osoaviakhim during one night on October 22, 1946.


title: Operation Paperclip

text: In a secret directive circulated on September 3, 1946, President Truman officially approved Operation Paperclip and expanded it to include 1,000 German scientists under "temporary, limited military custody".


title: Operation Paperclip

text: In the later part of World War II, Germany was at a logistical disadvantage, having failed to conquer the USSR with Operation Barbarossa (June–December 1941), and its drive for the Caucasus (June 1942–February 1943). The failed conquest had depleted German resources, and its military–industrial complex was unprepared to defend the Greater Germanic Reich against the Red Army's westward counterattack. By early 1943, the German government began recalling from combat a number of scientists, engineers, and technicians; they returned to work in research and development to bolster German defense for a protracted war with the USSR. The recall from frontline combat included 4,000 rocketeers returned to Peenemünde, in northeast coastal Germany.


title: Operation Paperclip

text: The Nazi government's recall of their now-useful intellectuals for scientific work first required identifying and locating the scientists, engineers, and technicians, then ascertaining their political and ideological reliability. Werner Osenberg, the engineer-scientist heading the "Wehrforschungsgemeinschaft" (Defense Research Association), recorded the names of the politically cleared men to the Osenberg List, thus reinstating them to scientific work.


title: Operation Paperclip

text: In March 1945, at Bonn University, a Polish laboratory technician found pieces of the Osenberg List stuffed in a toilet; the list subsequently reached MI6, who transmitted it to U.S. Intelligence. Then U.S. Army Major Robert B. Staver, Chief of the Jet Propulsion Section of the Research and Intelligence Branch of the United States Army Ordnance Corps, used the Osenberg List to compile his list of German scientists to be captured and interrogated; Wernher von Braun, Germany's premier rocket scientist, headed Major Staver's list.


title: Operation Paperclip

text: In Operation Overcast, Major Staver's original intent was only to interview the scientists, but what he learned changed the operation's purpose. On May 22, 1945, he transmitted to the U.S. Pentagon headquarters Colonel Joel Holmes' telegram urging the evacuation of German scientists and their families, as most "important for [the] Pacific war" effort. Most of the Osenberg List engineers worked at the Baltic coast German Army Research Center Peenemünde, developing the V-2 rocket. After capturing them, the Allies initially housed them and their families in Landshut, Bavaria, in southern Germany.


title: Operation Paperclip

text: Beginning on July 19, 1945, the U.S. JCS managed the captured ARC rocketeers under Operation Overcast. However, when the "Camp Overcast" name of the scientists' quarters became locally known, the program was renamed Operation Paperclip in November 1945. Despite these attempts at secrecy, the press interviewed several of the scientists later that year.


title: Operation Paperclip

text: Early on, the United States created the Combined Intelligence Objectives Subcommittee (CIOS). This provided the information on targets for the T-Forces that went in and targeted scientific, military, and industrial installations (and their employees) for their know-how. Initial priorities were advanced technology, such as infrared, that could be used in the war against Japan; finding out what technology had been passed on to Japan; and finally to halt the research.


title: Operation Paperclip

text: A project to halt the research was codenamed "Project Safehaven", and it was not initially targeted against the Soviet Union; rather the concern was that German scientists might emigrate and continue their research in countries such as Spain, Argentina or Egypt, all of which had sympathized with Nazi Germany. In order to avoid the complications involved with the emigration of German scientists, the CIOS was responsible for scouting and kidnapping high-profile individuals to block technological advancements in nations outside of the US.


title: Operation Paperclip

text: Much U.S. effort was focused on Saxony and Thuringia, which by July 1, 1945, would become part of the Soviet Occupation zone. Many German research facilities and personnel had been evacuated to these states, particularly from the Berlin area. Fearing that the Soviet takeover would limit U.S. ability to exploit German scientific and technical expertise, and not wanting the Soviet Union to benefit from said expertise, the United States instigated an "evacuation operation" of scientific personnel from Saxony and Thuringia, issuing orders such as:


title: Operation Paperclip

text: By 1947, this evacuation operation had netted an estimated 1,800 technicians and scientists, along with 3,700 family members. Those with special skills or knowledge were taken to detention and interrogation centers, such as at Adlerhorst, Germany or one code-named DUSTBIN (located first in Paris and then moved to Kransberg Castle outside Frankfurt) to be held and interrogated, in some cases for months.


title: Operation Paperclip

text: A few of the scientists were gathered as a part of Operation Overcast, but most were transported to villages in the countryside where there were neither research facilities nor work; they were provided stipends and forced to report twice weekly to police headquarters to prevent them from leaving. The Joint Chiefs of Staff directive on research and teaching stated that technicians and scientists should be released "only after all interested agencies were satisfied that all desired intelligence information had been obtained from them".


title: Operation Paperclip

text: On November 5, 1947, the Office of Military Government, United States (OMGUS), which had jurisdiction over the western part of occupied Germany, held a conference to consider the status of the evacuees, the monetary claims that the evacuees had filed against the United States, and the "possible violation by the US of laws of war or Rules of Land Warfare". The OMGUS director of Intelligence R. L. Walsh initiated a program to resettle the evacuees in the Third World, which the Germans referred to as General Walsh's "Urwald-Programm" (jungle program); however, this program never matured. In 1948, the evacuees received settlements of 69.5 million Reichsmarks from the U.S., a settlement that soon became severely devalued during the currency reform that introduced the Deutsche Mark as the official currency of western Germany.


title: Operation Paperclip

text: John Gimbel concludes that the United States held some of Germany's best minds for three years, therefore depriving the German recovery of their expertise.


title: Operation Paperclip

text: In May 1945, the U.S. Navy "received in custody" Herbert A. Wagner, the inventor of the Hs 293 missile; for two years, he first worked at the Special Devices Center, at Castle Gould and at Hempstead House, Long Island, New York; in 1947, he moved to the Naval Air Station Point Mugu.


title: Operation Paperclip

text: In August 1945, Colonel Holger Toftoy, head of the Rocket Branch of the Research and Development Division of the U.S. Army's Ordnance Corps, offered initial one-year contracts to the rocket scientists; 127 of them accepted. In September 1945, the first group of seven rocket scientists (aerospace engineers) arrived at Fort Strong, located on Long Island in Boston harbor: Wernher von Braun, Erich W. Neubert, Theodor A. Poppel, William August Schulze, Eberhard Rees, Wilhelm Jungert, and Walter Schwidetzky.


title: Operation Paperclip

text: Beginning in late 1945, three rocket-scientist groups arrived in the United States for duty at Fort Bliss, Texas, and at White Sands Proving Grounds, New Mexico, as "War Department Special Employees".


title: Operation Paperclip

text: In 1946, the United States Bureau of Mines employed seven German synthetic fuel scientists at a Fischer–Tropsch chemical plant in Louisiana, Missouri.


title: Operation Paperclip

text: On June 1, 1949, the Chief of Ordnance of the United States Army designated Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama, as the Ordnance Rocket Center, its facility for rocket research and development. On April 1, 1950, the Fort Bliss missile development operation—including von Braun and his team of over 130 Paperclip members—was transferred to Redstone Arsenal.


title: Operation Paperclip

text: In early 1950, legal U.S. residency for some of the Project Paperclip specialists was effected through the U.S. consulate in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, Mexico; thus, German scientists legally entered the United States from Latin America.


title: Operation Paperclip

text: Between 1945 and 1952, the United States Air Force sponsored the largest number of Paperclip scientists, importing 260 men, of whom 36 returned to Germany and one (Walter Schreiber) reemigrated to Argentina.


title: Operation Paperclip

text: Eighty-six aeronautical engineers were transferred to Wright Field, Ohio, where the United States had Luftwaffe aircraft and equipment captured under Operation Lusty (Luftwaffe Secret Technology).


title: Operation Paperclip

text: The United States Army Signal Corps employed 24 specialists—including the physicists Georg Goubau, Gunter Guttwein, Georg Hass, Horst Kedesdy, and Kurt Lehovec; the physical chemists Rudolf Brill, Ernst Baars, and Eberhard Both; the geophysicist Helmut Weickmann; the optician Gerhard Schwesinger; and the engineers Eduard Gerber, Richard Guenther, and Hans Ziegler.


title: Operation Paperclip

text: In 1959, 94 Operation Paperclip men went to the United States, including Friedwardt Winterberg and Friedrich Wigand.


title: Operation Paperclip

text: Overall, through its operations to 1990, Operation Paperclip imported 1,600 men as part of the "intellectual reparations" owed to the US and the UK, valued at $10 billion in patents and industrial processes.


title: Operation Paperclip

text: The NASA Distinguished Service Medal is the highest award which may be bestowed by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). After more than two decades of service and leadership in NASA, four Operation Paperclip members were awarded the NASA Distinguished Service Medal in 1969: Kurt Debus, Eberhard Rees, Arthur Rudolph, and Wernher von Braun. Ernst Geissler was awarded the medal in 1973.


title: Operation Paperclip

text: The Department of Defense Distinguished Civilian Service Award is the highest civilian award given by the United States Department of Defense. After two decades of service, Operation Paperclip member Siegfried Knemeyer was awarded the Department of Defense Distinguished Civilian Service Award in 1966.


title: Operation Paperclip

text: The Goddard Astronautics Award is the highest honor bestowed for notable achievements in the field of astronautics by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA). For their service, three Operation Paperclip members were awarded the Goddard Astronautics Award: Wernher von Braun (1961), Hans von Ohain (1966), and Krafft Arnold Ehricke (1984).


title: Operation Paperclip

text: The U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama, owns and operates the U.S. Space Camp. Several Operation Paperclip members are members of the Space Camp Hall of Fame (which began in 2007): Wernher von Braun (2007), Georg von Tiesenhausen (2007), and Oscar Holderer (2008).


title: Operation Paperclip

text: The New Mexico Museum of Space History includes the International Space Hall of Fame. Two Operation Paperclip members are members of the International Space Hall of Fame: Wernher von Braun (1976) and Ernst Steinhoff (1979). Hubertus Strughold was inducted in 1978 but removed as a member in 2006. Other closely related members include Willy Ley (1976), a German-American science writer, and Hermann Oberth (1976), a German scientist who advised von Braun's rocket team in the U.S. from 1955 to 1958.


title: Operation Paperclip

text: Two lunar craters are named after Paperclip scientists: Debus after Kurt Debus, the first director of NASA's Kennedy Space Center, and von Braun.


title: Operation Paperclip

text: Wernher von Braun was chief architect of the Saturn V launch vehicle, which enabled human missions to the moon.


title: Operation Paperclip

text: Adolf Busemann was responsible for the swept wing, which improved aircraft performance at high speeds.


title: Operation Paperclip

text: Before his official approval of the program, President Truman, for sixteen months, was indecisive on the program. Years later in 1963, Truman recalled that he was not in the least reluctant to approve Paperclip; that because of relations with the Soviet Union "this had to be done and was done".


title: Operation Paperclip

text: Several of the Paperclip scientists were later investigated because of their links with the Nazi Party during the war. Only one Paperclip scientist, Georg Rickhey, was formally tried for any crime, and no Paperclip scientist was found guilty of any crime, in the United States or Germany. Rickhey was returned to Germany in 1947 to stand at the Dora Trial, where he was acquitted.


title: Operation Paperclip

text: In 1951, weeks after his U.S. arrival, Walter Schreiber was linked by the "Boston Globe" to human experiments conducted by Kurt Blome at Ravensbrück, and he emigrated to Argentina with the aid of the U.S. military.


title: Operation Paperclip

text: In 1984, Arthur Rudolph, under perceived threat of prosecution relating to his connection – as operations director for V-2 missile production – to the use of forced labor from Mittelbau-Dora at the Mittelwerk, renounced his U.S. citizenship and moved to West Germany, which granted him citizenship.


title: Operation Paperclip

text: For 50 years, from 1963 to 2013, the Strughold Award – named after Hubertus Strughold, "The Father of Space Medicine", for his central role in developing innovations like the space suit and space life support systems – was the most prestigious award from the Space Medicine Association, a member organization of the Aerospace Medical Association. On October 1, 2013, in the aftermath of a "Wall Street Journal" article published on December 1, 2012, which highlighted his connection to human experiments during WW2, the Space Medicine Association's Executive Committee announced that the Space Medicine Association Strughold Award had been retired.


title: Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

text: Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band is the eighth studio album by the English rock band the Beatles. Released on 26May 1967, "Sgt. Pepper" is regarded by musicologists as an early concept album that advanced the roles of sound composition, extended form, psychedelic imagery, record sleeves, and the producer in popular music. The album had an immediate cross-generational impact and was associated with numerous touchstones of the era's youth culture, such as fashion, drugs, mysticism, and a sense of optimism and empowerment. Critics lauded the album for its innovations in songwriting, production and graphic design, for bridging a cultural divide between popular music and high art, and for reflecting the interests of contemporary youth and the counterculture.


title: Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

text: At the end of August 1966, the Beatles had permanently retired from touring and pursued individual interests for the next three months. During a return flight to London in November, Paul McCartney had an idea for a song involving an Edwardian military band that formed the impetus of the "Sgt. Pepper" concept. For this project, they continued the technological experimentation marked by their previous album, "Revolver", this time without an absolute deadline for completion. Sessions began on 24November at EMI Studios with compositions inspired by the Beatles' youth, but after pressure from EMI, the songs "Strawberry Fields Forever" and "Penny Lane" were released as a double A-side single in February 1967 and left off the LP. The album was then loosely conceptualised as a performance by the fictional Sgt. Pepper band, an idea that was conceived after recording the title track.


title: Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

text: A key work of British psychedelia, "Sgt. Pepper" is considered one of the first art rock LPs and a progenitor to progressive rock. It incorporates a range of stylistic influences, including vaudeville, circus, music hall, avant-garde, and Western and Indian classical music. With assistance from producer George Martin and engineer Geoff Emerick, much of the recordings were coloured with sound effects and tape manipulation, as exemplified on "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds", "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!" and "A Day in the Life". Recording was completed on 21April. The cover, which depicts the Beatles posing in front of a tableau of celebrities and historical figures, was designed by the pop artists Peter Blake and Jann Haworth.


title: Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

text: "Sgt. Pepper"s release was a defining moment in pop culture, heralding the album era and the 1967 Summer of Love, while its reception achieved full cultural legitimisation for pop music and recognition for the medium as a genuine art form. The album spent 27 weeks at number one on the "Record Retailer" chart in the United Kingdom and 15 weeks at number one on the "Billboard" Top LPs chart in the United States. In 1968, it won four Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year, the first rock LP to receive this honour; in 2003, it was inducted into the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress. It has topped several critics' and listeners' polls for the best album of all time, including those published by "Rolling Stone" magazine and in the book "All Time Top 1000 Albums", and the UK's "Music of the Millennium" poll. More than 32 million copies had been sold worldwide as of 2011. It remains one of the best-selling albums of all time and was still, in 2018, the UK's best-selling studio album. A of the album was released in 2017.


title: Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

text: By late 1965, the Beatles had grown weary of live performance. In John Lennon's opinion, they could "send out four waxworks ... and that would satisfy the crowds. Beatles concerts are nothing to do with music anymore. They're just bloody tribal rites." In June 1966, two days after finishing the album "Revolver", the group set off for a tour that started in West Germany. While in Hamburg they received an anonymous telegram stating: "Do not go to Tokyo. Your life is in danger." The threat was taken seriously in light of the controversy surrounding the tour among Japan's religious and conservative groups, with particular opposition to the Beatles' planned performances at the sacred Nippon Budokan arena. As an added precaution, 35,000 police were mobilised and tasked with protecting the group, who were transported from hotels to concert venues in armoured vehicles. The Beatles then performed in the Philippines, where they were threatened and manhandled by its citizens for not visiting First Lady Imelda Marcos. The group were angry with their manager, Brian Epstein, for insisting on what they regarded as an exhausting and demoralising itinerary.


title: Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

text: The publication in the US of Lennon's remarks about the Beatles being "more popular than Jesus" then embroiled the band in controversy and protest in America's Bible Belt. A public apology eased tensions, but a US tour in August that was marked by reduced ticket sales, relative to the group's record attendances in 1965, and subpar performances proved to be their last. The author Nicholas Schaffner writes:


title: Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

text: On the Beatles' return to England, rumours began to circulate that they had decided to break up. George Harrison informed Epstein that he was leaving the band, but was persuaded to stay on the assurance that there would be no more tours. The group took a three-month break, during which they focused on individual interests. Harrison travelled to India for six weeks to study the sitar under the instruction of Ravi Shankar and develop his interest in Hindu philosophy. Having been the last of the Beatles to concede that their live performances had become futile, Paul McCartney collaborated with Beatles producer George Martin on the soundtrack for the film "The Family Way" and holidayed in Kenya with Mal Evans, one of the Beatles' tour managers. Lennon acted in the film "How I Won the War" and attended art showings, such as one at the Indica Gallery where he met his future wife Yoko Ono. Ringo Starr used the break to spend time with his wife Maureen and son Zak.


title: Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

text: While in London without his bandmates, McCartney took the hallucinogenic drug LSD (or "acid") for the first time, having long resisted Lennon and Harrison's insistence that he join them and Starr in experiencing its perception-heightening effects. According to author Jonathan Gould, this initiation into LSD afforded McCartney the "expansive new sense of possibility" that defined the group's next project, "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band". Gould adds that McCartney's succumbing to peer pressure allowed Lennon "to play the role of psychedelic guide" to his songwriting partner, thereby facilitating a closer collaboration between the two than had been evident since early in the Beatles' career. For his part, Lennon had turned deeply introspective during the filming of "How I Won the War" in southern Spain in September 1966. His anxiety over his and the Beatles' future was reflected in "Strawberry Fields Forever", a song that provided the initial theme, regarding a Liverpool childhood, of the new album. On his return to London, Lennon embraced the city's arts culture, of which McCartney was a part, and shared his bandmate's interest in avant-garde and electronic-music composers such as Karlheinz Stockhausen, John Cage and Luciano Berio.


title: Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

text: In November, during his and Evans' return flight from Kenya, McCartney had an idea for a song that eventually formed the impetus of the "Sgt. Pepper" concept. His idea involved an Edwardian-era military band, for which Evans invented a name in the style of contemporary San Francisco-based groups such as Big Brother and the Holding Company and Quicksilver Messenger Service. In February 1967, McCartney suggested that the new album should represent a performance by the fictional band. This alter ego group would give them the freedom to experiment musically by releasing them from their image as Beatles. Martin recalled that the concept was not discussed at the start of the sessions, but it subsequently gave the album "a life of its own".


title: Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

text: Portions of "Sgt. Pepper" reflect the Beatles' general immersion in the blues, Motown and other American popular musical traditions. The author Ian MacDonald writes that when reviewing their rivals' recent work in late 1966, the Beatles identified the most significant LP as the Beach Boys' "Pet Sounds", which Brian Wilson, the band's leader, had created in response to the Beatles' "Rubber Soul". McCartney was highly impressed with the "harmonic structures" and choice of instruments used on "Pet Sounds", and said that these elements encouraged him to think the Beatles could "get further out" than the Beach Boys had. He identified "Pet Sounds" as his main musical inspiration for "Sgt. Pepper", adding that "[we] nicked a few ideas", although he felt it lacked the avant-garde quality he was seeking. "Freak Out!" by the Mothers of Invention has also been cited as having influenced "Sgt. Pepper". According to the biographer Philip Norman, during the recording sessions McCartney repeatedly stated: "This is our "Freak Out!"" The music journalist Chet Flippo stated that McCartney was inspired to record a concept album after hearing "Freak Out!"


title: Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

text: Indian music was another touchstone on "Sgt. Pepper", principally for Lennon and Harrison. In a 1967 interview, Harrison said that the Beatles' ongoing success had encouraged them to continue developing musically and that, given their standing, "We can do things that please us without conforming to the standard pop idea. We are not only involved in pop music, but all music." McCartney envisioned the Beatles' alter egos being able to "do a bit of B.B. King, a bit of Stockhausen, a bit of Albert Ayler, a bit of Ravi Shankar, a bit of "Pet Sounds", a bit of the Doors". He saw the group as "pushing frontiers" similar to other composers of the time, even though the Beatles did not "necessarily like what, say, Berio was doing".


title: Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

text: Sessions began on 24 November 1966 in Studio Two at EMI Studios (subsequently Abbey Road Studios), marking the first time that the Beatles had come together since September. Afforded the luxury of a nearly limitless recording budget, and with no absolute deadline for completion, the band booked open-ended sessions that started at 7 pm and allowed them to work as late as they wanted. They began with "Strawberry Fields Forever", followed by two other songs that were thematically linked to their childhoods: "When I'm Sixty-Four", the first session for which took place on 6 December, and "Penny Lane".


title: Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

text: "Strawberry Fields Forever" and "Penny Lane" were subsequently released as a double A-side in February 1967 after EMI and Epstein pressured Martin for a single. When it failed to reach number one in the UK, British press agencies speculated that the group's run of success might have ended, with headlines such as "Beatles Fail to Reach the Top", "First Time in Four Years" and "Has the Bubble Burst?" In keeping with the band's approach to their previously issued singles, the songs were then excluded from "Sgt. Pepper". Martin later described the decision to drop these two songs as "the biggest mistake of my professional life". In his judgment, "Strawberry Fields Forever", which he and the band spent an unprecedented 55 hours of studio time recording, "set the agenda for the whole album". He explained: "It was going to be a record ... [with songs that] couldn't be performed live: they were designed to be studio productions and that was the difference." McCartney declared: "Now our performance that record."


title: Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

text: According to the musicologist Walter Everett, "Sgt. Pepper" marks the beginning of McCartney's ascendancy as the Beatles' dominant creative force. He wrote more than half of the album's material while asserting increasing control over the recording of his compositions. In an effort to get the right sound, the Beatles attempted numerous re-takes of McCartney's song "Getting Better". When the decision was made to re-record the basic track, Starr was summoned to the studio, but called off soon afterwards as the focus switched from rhythm to vocal tracking. Much of the bass guitar on the album was mixed upfront. Preferring to overdub his bass part last, McCartney tended to play other instruments when recording a song's backing track. This approach afforded him the time to devise bass lines that were melodically adventurous – one of the qualities he especially admired in Wilson's work on "Pet Sounds" – and complemented the song's final arrangement. McCartney played keyboard instruments such as piano, grand piano and Lowrey organ, in addition to electric guitar on some songs, while Martin variously contributed on Hohner Pianet, harpsichord and harmonium. Lennon's songs similarly showed a preference for keyboard instruments.


title: Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

text: Although Harrison's role as lead guitarist was limited during the sessions, Everett considers that "his contribution to the album is strong in several ways." He provided Indian instrumentation in the form of sitar, tambura and swarmandal, and Martin credited him with being the most committed of the Beatles in striving for new sounds. Starr's adoption of loose calfskin heads for his tom-toms ensured his drum kit had a deeper timbre than he had previously achieved with plastic heads. As on "Revolver", the Beatles increasingly used session musicians, particularly for classical-inspired arrangements. Norman comments that Lennon's prominent vocal on some of McCartney's songs "hugely enhanced their atmosphere", particularly "Lovely Rita".


title: Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

text: Within an hour of completing the last overdubs on the album's songs, on 20 April 1967, the group returned to Harrison's "Only a Northern Song", the basic track of which they had taped in February. The Beatles overdubbed random sounds and instrumentation before submitting it as the first of four new songs they were contracted to supply to United Artists for inclusion in the animated film "Yellow Submarine". In author Mark Lewisohn's description, it was a "curious" session, but one that demonstrated the Beatles' "tremendous appetite for recording". During the "Sgt. Pepper" sessions, the band also recorded "Carnival of Light", a McCartney-led experimental piece created for the Million Volt Light and Sound Rave, held at the Roundhouse Theatre on 28 January and 4 February. The album was completed on 21 April with the recording of random noises and voices that were included on the run-out groove, preceded by a high-pitched tone that could be heard by dogs but was inaudible to most human ears.


title: Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

text: The Beatles sought to inject an atmosphere of celebration into the recording sessions. Weary of the bland look inside EMI, they introduced psychedelic lighting to the studio space, including a device on which five red fluorescent tubes were fixed to a microphone stand, a lava lamp, a red darkroom lamp, and a stroboscope, the last of which they soon abandoned. Harrison later said the studio became the band's clubhouse for "Sgt. Pepper"; David Crosby, Mick Jagger and Donovan were among the musician friends who visited them there. The band members also dressed up in psychedelic fashions, leading one session trumpeter to wonder whether they were in costume for a new film. Drug-taking was prevalent during the sessions, with Martin later recalling that the group would steal away to "have something".


title: Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

text: The 10 February session for orchestral overdubs on "A Day in the Life" was staged as a happening typical of the London avant-garde scene. The Beatles invited numerous friends and the session players wore formal dinner-wear augmented with fancy-dress props. Overseen by NEMS employee Tony Bramwell, the proceedings were filmed on seven handheld cameras, with the band doing some of the filming. Following this event, the group considered making a television special based on the album. Each of the songs was to be represented with a clip directed by a different director, but the cost of recording "Sgt. Pepper" made the idea prohibitive to EMI. For the 15 March session for "Within You Without You", Studio Two was transformed with Indian carpets placed on the walls, dimmed lighting and burning incense to evoke the requisite Indian mood. Lennon described the session as a "great swinging evening" with "400 Indian fellas" among the guests.


title: Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

text: The Beatles took an acetate disc of the completed album to the flat of American singer Cass Elliot, off King's Road in Chelsea. There, at six in the morning, they played it at full volume with speakers set in open window frames. The group's friend and former press agent, Derek Taylor, remembered that residents of the neighbourhood opened their windows and listened without complaint to what they understood to be unreleased Beatles music.


title: Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

text: In his book on ambient music, "The Ambient Century: From Mahler to Moby", Mark Prendergast views "Sgt. Pepper" as the Beatles' "homage" to Stockhausen and Cage, adding that its "rich, tape-manipulated sound" shows the influence of electronic and experimental composer Pierre Schaeffer. Martin recalled that "Sgt. Pepper" "grew naturally out of "Revolver"", marking "an era of almost continuous technological experimentation". The album was recorded using four-track equipment, since eight-track tape recorders were not operational in commercial studios in London until late 1967. As with previous Beatles albums, the "Sgt. Pepper" recordings made extensive use of reduction mixing, a technique in which one to four tracks from one recorder are mixed and dubbed down onto a master four-track machine, enabling the engineers to give the group a virtual multitrack studio. EMI's Studer J37 four-track machines were well suited to reduction mixing, as the high quality of the recordings that they produced minimised the increased noise associated with the process. When recording the orchestra for "A Day in the Life", Martin synchronised a four-track recorder playing the Beatles' backing track to another one taping the orchestral overdub. The engineer Ken Townsend devised a method for accomplishing this by using a 50 Hz control signal between the two machines.


title: Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

text: The production on "Strawberry Fields Forever" was especially complex, involving the innovative splicing of two takes that were recorded in different tempos and pitches. Emerick remembers that during the recording of "Revolver", "we had got used to being asked to do the impossible, and we knew that the word 'no' didn't exist in the Beatles' vocabulary." A key feature of "Sgt. Pepper" is Martin and Emerick's liberal use of signal processing to shape the sound of the recording, which included the application of dynamic range compression, reverb and signal limiting. Relatively new modular effects units were used, such as running voices and instruments through a Leslie speaker. Several innovative production techniques feature prominently on the recordings, including direct injection, pitch control and ambiophonics. The bass part on "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" was the first example of the Beatles recording via direct injection (DI), which Townsend devised as a method for plugging electric guitars directly into the recording console. In Kenneth Womack's opinion, the use of DI on the album's title track "afforded McCartney's bass with richer textures and tonal clarity".


title: Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

text: Some of the mixing employed automatic double tracking (ADT), a system that uses tape recorders to create a simultaneous doubling of a sound. ADT was invented by Townsend during the "Revolver" sessions in 1966 especially for the Beatles, who regularly expressed a desire for a technical alternative to having to record doubled lead vocals. Another important effect was varispeeding, a technique that the Beatles used extensively on "Revolver". Martin cites "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" as having the most variations of tape speed on "Sgt. Pepper". During the recording of Lennon's vocals, the tape speed was reduced from 50 cycles per second to 45, which produced a higher and thinner-sounding track when played back at the normal speed. For the album's title track, the recording of Starr's drum kit was enhanced by the use of damping and close-miking. MacDonald credits the new recording technique with creating a "three-dimensional" sound that, along with other Beatles innovations, engineers in the US would soon adopt as standard practice.