A new analysis of decades’ worth of observations has revealed that Uranus does indeed emit more heat than it receives from the rays of the Sun.
i guess this means that a nuclear process occurs in its interior?
i.e. uranium decay releases heat or sth
Stupid me and weird titles.
This conclusion, arrived at by two independent teams of scientists, finally resolves a puzzle that first emerged when Voyager 2 cruised past the stinky planet all the way back in 1986. Those observations suggested that Uranus was not emitting any excess heat – a finding that put it at odds with all the other giant planets in the Solar System.
They know what they’re doing
I’m confused. The title suggests it’s hotter than anticipated, but the articles contents suggest that it’s not as hot as it should be. It’s emitting less heat than the other giant planets. Not more.
Now I understand that this means it’s losing heat at a slower rate, but wouldn’t it likely have to be colder than expected to begin with in order to it be losing it at a slower rate than the others?
The article is confusingly worded but the new finding is that Uranus DOES emit more heat than it absorbs from the Sun (unlike previous measurements suggested), but still emits less excess heat than the other gas giants - it’s both “hotter than it should be” yet “cooler than expected” compared to similar planets.
The headline is horrible (haven’t read the actual article). As I undrstamd the topic, Uranus radiates more heat than previously measured, but still less than our models suggest it should.
is it some sort of fucking law that headlines have to be dogshit?
Seems so. In the few media I’m slightly more familiar with, the headlines are written by someone else with the aim of drawing in more readers and the authors of the articles themselves have no control over it.
Dayum gurl
I read recently that Uranus has also become a much lighter color than in initial observations. It’s almost as if Uranus has been bleached.
It hasn’t become that color, it always was that color, we just didn’t take good pictures of it
Obligatory, “why, thank you”
If it’s producing more heat than a standard world that size would (I’m assuming compared to Neptune), perhaps it’s due to the composition of the rogue body that collided with it in the distant past to give it its axial tilt. Considering how profoundly, anomolously large the current 20km interstellar object 3I Atlas is, its reasonable to assume interstellar objects are larger and more common in general than theory would suggest. Perhaps something interstellar and truly exotic slammed into Uranus in the distant past, maybe studying its oldest moons would give some clues as to what.
It’s actually less heat emitting than the other giant planets.
Especially after a vindaloo.
Uranus so hot rn
You can derelicht Uranus.
It’s the weather.
That’s true no matter which way this thread goes.
