Unlike most planets, Uranus spins almost completely on its side. When the solar wind reaches a planet with a magnetic field, it encounters a protective magnetic region called the magnetosphere. Their model simulated the complex interaction between the planet’s magnetic field and the solar wind. At this point in Uranus’s 84-Earth-year journey around the sun, changes in the bow shock are expected to be especially strong. The simulations showed how the bow shock changes in both size and shape throughout a complete Uranian day.