It's Official: Uranus Smells Like Farts
upstart writes in with an IRC submission for c0lo:
It's Official: Uranus Smells Like Farts:
According to a new study by researchers at the University of Oxford and other institutions, published in the journal Nature Astronomy, the upper layer of Uranus's atmosphere consists largely of hydrogen sulfide-the same compound that gives farts their putrid stench.
[...] Certain gases absorb infrared light from the Sun. By analyzing the infrared light patterns in the images they captured using the Gemini North telescope in Hawaii, astronomers were able to get a clearer picture of Uranus's atmospheric composition.
[...] Unlike Uranus (and most likely its fellow ice giant Neptune), the gas giants Saturn and Jupiter show no evidence of hydrogen sulfide in their upper atmospheres. Instead they contain ammonia, the same toxic compound used in some heavy-duty cleaners.
"During our solar system's formation, the balance between nitrogen and sulfur (and hence ammonia and Uranus's newly detected hydrogen sulfide) was determined by the temperature and location of planet's formation," research team member Leigh Fletcher, of the University of Leicester, said in a press statement. In other words, the gases in Uranus's atmosphere may be able to tell us where in the solar system the planet formed before it migrated to its current spot.
Journal Reference:
Patrick G. J. Irwin, Daniel Toledo, Ryan Garland, et al. Detection of hydrogen sulfide above the clouds in Uranus's atmosphere, Nature Astronomy (DOI: 10.1038/s41550-018-0432-1)
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