Is Uranus Losing Its Atmosphere? (digitaltrends.com) 49
Mars was once covered by oceans, but lost its atmosphere over time, according to Gina DiBraccio, a space physicist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center and project scientist for the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution, or MAVEN mission.
Is the same thing happening to Uranus? The magnetic bubble surrounding the giant gas planet may be siphoning its atmosphere off into space, reports Digital Trends: Uranus's atmospheric loss is driven by its strange magnetic field, the axis of which points at an angle compared to the axis on which the planet spins. That means its magnetosphere wobbles as it moves, which makes it very difficult to model. "The structure, the way that it moves," DiBraccio said, "Uranus is really on its own." Due to the wobbling of the magnetosphere, bits of the atmosphere are drained away in what are called plasmoids — bubbles of plasma which pinch off from the magnetic field as it is blown around by the Sun. Although these plasmoids have been seen on Earth and on some other planets, they had never been observed on Uranus before the recent analysis of old Voyager 2 data.
Interestingly, the theory comes from a new analysis of 30-year-old data gathered by the Voyager 2 space probe -- long before it reached the edge of our solar system.
Is the same thing happening to Uranus? The magnetic bubble surrounding the giant gas planet may be siphoning its atmosphere off into space, reports Digital Trends: Uranus's atmospheric loss is driven by its strange magnetic field, the axis of which points at an angle compared to the axis on which the planet spins. That means its magnetosphere wobbles as it moves, which makes it very difficult to model. "The structure, the way that it moves," DiBraccio said, "Uranus is really on its own." Due to the wobbling of the magnetosphere, bits of the atmosphere are drained away in what are called plasmoids — bubbles of plasma which pinch off from the magnetic field as it is blown around by the Sun. Although these plasmoids have been seen on Earth and on some other planets, they had never been observed on Uranus before the recent analysis of old Voyager 2 data.
Interestingly, the theory comes from a new analysis of 30-year-old data gathered by the Voyager 2 space probe -- long before it reached the edge of our solar system.
Obvious joke (Score:5, Funny)
So THAT is what that smell is.
Re:Obvious joke (Score:5, Insightful)
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I think that they just vented an April 1st story a little too soon, like when you release gas in an elevator and somebody gets on it with you
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Home schooled (Score:2)
Not truant, home schooled. Their parents are in on this.
Kudos on the headline (Score:1)
Bad news (Score:2)
Some gas seems to be leaking out of Uranus!
another obvious one (Score:1)
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Close: https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
No (Score:2)
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Fake news! Myranus is perfectly fine. In fact, it's so great, millions come just to touch it; everyone wants to touch it, believe me! Best experience eeeever! They never wash their finger it's so great."
Only 400 more years to ayuck it up... (Score:5, Funny)
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U rekt 'em?
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Had the Brits not gone through their curious great vowel shift [wikipedia.org] pronunciation would be without strange thoughts.
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Why? (Score:2)
*Really* Obvious Joke: Uranus is passing gas (Score:2)
But then I would too if I was in a really wobbly magnetic field.
Have you tried a cork? (Score:1)
Maybe Uranus is losing its atmosphere, but Myanus is doing just fine thank you.
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your glorious and most holy leader
Who are you talking to? Trump isn't my leader and I've certainly never used such absurd language to describe him. I was commenting on the fact that people (are you one of them?) are so obsessed with him that they keep posting diatribes against him in totally irrelevant contexts.
Have you considered mental help?
Trump is a clown. If the mere mention of his name drives you into a rage (seriously, "glorious and most holy"!? How can you even write that?) perhaps you should seek mental help.
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Orange man not bad, just stupid.
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Narcissistic, per DSM-5.
No (Score:2)
Wasn't Uranus a "gas planet"? (Score:2)
Ice giant, actually (Score:3, Informative)
Jupiter and Saturn are the "gas giants"; Uranus and Neptune are the "ice giants". Uranus has a small rock core with an icy mantle above it. At the mantle level, the methane is ice, but is gaseous in the atmosphere above that.
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So some of the atmosphere it's venting is methane? How much is is hydrogen sulfide? That would make the joke complete.
RIP the old Starship Enterprise joke (Score:1)
plasmoids - bubbles of plasma which pinch off from the magnetic field
Well there goes the old joke about what the Starship Enterprise and Toilet Paper have in common. Turns out it's plasmoids and not klingons afterall
That, and it's also more likely that I'll find the Starship Enterprise at the store right now, before I'll find any toilet paper...
Here comes the jokes. (Score:2)
Uranus = jokes! :P
atmospheric disturbance (Score:1)
Boring science comment (Score:2)
The authors estimate the mass in the plasmoid to be 430 +/- 270 kg, and about a 17h cycle time for plasmoid formation, for a total mass loss rate of 0.007 +/- 0.004 kg/s. That can be compared to the estimated Terrestrial (3 kg/s) and Martian (~1.5 kg/s, both estimates from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/. [wikipedia.org]
April 1 is tomorrow, you're early (Score:2)