Posted on 10/31/2011 10:21:14 PM PDT by PJ-Comix
Quit snickering! Something on Uranus has erupted and now scientists are all in a tizzy about what and why it might be.
The news is exciting for a number of reasons. The simplest being we know very little about Uranus, mostly due to its incredible distance form Earth and because it's, well, frankly one of the more "boring" planets out there.
But now, apparently, it's amazing again, all because of a mystery explosion in its atmosphere. Why is the explosion important? Mostly because Uranus's unique axis (on its side), amongst other things:
"The reason we care about the clouds on the planet Uranus is that they seem to be seasonally driven," said planetary scientist Heidi B. Hammel over at MSNBC.com. "Uranus spins tipped over on its side, giving rise to extreme changes in sunlight as its seasons progress. The changes are therefore much more dramatic than for other planets. Uranus thus gives us unique insight into the energy balance in a planetary atmosphere."
Add to that the fact that Uranus's northern hemisphere gets sunlight for 42 straight years while the southern is in darkness and this blue gem of the outer solar system starts to look a little less "boring" with each passing observation.
That picture of the planet looks suspiciously like Jupiter when Shoemaker-Levy 9 smacked into it.
Something Has Exploded In a Spectacular Fashion On Uranus
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And you never saw a room clear out faster.
And, it is being studied by astronomers when proctologists are called for. Sheesh! The butthole of the solar system gets no respect!
Looks like pimples.
Oh, those long southern nights!
It's a well kept secret and I plan to keep it that way........
Perhaps this will open up a new field for Proctonomers.
Or Astro-tologists.
“....cauterize those hemorrhoids.”
maybe the “asteroids”?
My sister had a wound that she showed me.......I said you probably have a moose bite on uranus!
Baldercrap! Ass-tronomer have studied Uranus for years. The real mystery involves the little known planetoids orbiting Uranus in the so called Dingleberry Belt.
And people wonder why our education system is in the toilet (wording intentional),and that NASA is being slowly dismantled. If the responses to this post are any example of the general mindset of the American public, the answer is here.
(Got to admit I laughed at some of them, though).
I know I’m being boring and there is nothing more fun than middle school humor but the name on the planet is pronounced like “ your’-in-us”, emphasis on the first syllable. If you still need the middle school humor, think of it as “urine-us”
Although this thread gave me the giggles, I agree. It does look (like someone already said) like a comet or something with many pieces hit Uranus.
If it was a comet, wouldn’t we have seen it beforehand?
A mystery indeed.
I clicked on this thread hoping to see a pic of the explosion on Uranus. Does that sound weird?
Must be Barney Frank again.
Was it internal or external explosions?
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