The entire field of astronomy has to deal with the fact that one planetโs name sounds like a funny, albeit immature, joke. That this planet is one of 4 considered a โGas Giantโ is also a humorous but totally juvenile comedic fact.
Weโre talking, of course, about Uranus.
Many children who learn of this planetโs name in school are no doubt filled with questions such as โDid adults name this planet?โ, โDo they not know what that sounds like?โ, and โHow am I supposed to take the rest of this class seriously?โ Much like Santa Claus, learning about Uranus can cause many children to question what adults are telling them altogether.
Some Uranus jokes are based on facts.
The thing about Uranus is, it can smell unpleasant. There is a large amount of hydrogen sulfide stored up in Uranus and if someoneโs nose catches a whiff of this unpleasant gas, it can be rather off-putting. This has now been confirmed by science.
Researchers from the University of Oxford recently published a paper in Nature Astronomy looking at the atmospheric content of Uranus. As it turns out, the atmospheric content located on Uranus is sometimes very similar to the atmospheric content located in your an- You know what?
Weโre going to take the high road on this one and just move on.
Atmospheric content on Uranus.
The team of researchers discovered that the clouds on Uranus contain hydrogen sulfide, the very same gas which makes human flatulence smell like rotten eggs.
โIf [a person] could survive the fall down to Uranus, theyโd smell a horrible smell of rotten eggs,โ said the studyโs lead author Patrick Irwin.
โIโm not sure anyoneโs really looked to see what the human nose would do in a hydrogen-helium atmosphere with a bit of hydrogen sulphide, but I imagine that you would still smell this pungent aroma.โ
Scientists and immature people had already assumed this was the case.
Scientists had already theorized that Uranus was filled with rotten-egg smelling gas but this latest study proved it.
โWe thought it was probably there,โ Irwin continued.
โBut weโve never actually been able to absolutely say for certain that it really is until these new measurements weโve just made, where we can actually see the fingerprints of hydrogen sulphide above the clouds.โ
Study helps determine the origin of planets.
In addition to contributing to silly fart-themed humor, the study also helped contribute to the growing body of knowledge regarding how planets in our solar system formed.
The study also looked at the compositional difference of the 4 gas giant planets: Uranus, Neptune, Mars, and Jupiter. Due to their icy conditions, Uranus and Neptune are referred to as the Ice Giants. Uranus doesnโt get a lot of Sun, you see. In fact, parts of Uranus can go decades without seeing the sun at all. If you stick something on these parts of Uranus, you truly have stuck them where the โsun donโt shine.โ
The amount of hydrogen sulphide on each planet helps researchers learn how they formed.
โWhat we think is that for Jupiter and Saturn, where they formed, ammonia was probably mostly in icy form. But hydrogen sulphide was a sort of gas and so less easily absorbed as the planet grew,โ Irwin said.
โWhereas for Uranus, and we guess Neptune, they formed farther out where hydrogen sulphide was also in icy form and so could be collected by the planet.โ
You can learn more about why Uranus smells like rotten eggs in the video below.
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