Posted on 02/08/2019 7:01:28 PM PST by EdnaMode
The appearance of a massive white cap on Uranus may seem alarming, but as planetary scientists are learning, this is what a prolonged summer looks like on the remote ice giant.
Ice giants Uranus and Neptune have water-rich interiors coated with hydrogen, helium, and a pinch of methane, the latter of which gives these outer planets their distinctive cyan complexion. Unlike Earth, where seasons last just a few months, Neptune and Uranus experience seasons that last for decades, resulting in strange and intense atmospheric phenomena.
New images released by the Outer Planet Atmospheres Legacy (OPAL) program highlight a evolving atmospheric events on both ice giants, namely an extended white cap over Uranus north pole and a new dark vortex on Neptune. A long-term side project of the Hubble program, OPAL is an annual effort to map these two planets when their orbital paths bring them closest to Earth. The new data, captured during the autumn of 2018, are providing important new insights into the seasonal variations on both Neptune and Uranus.
The yearly observations are helping us to understand the frequency of storms, as well as their longevity, Amy Simon, a scientist at NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center who leads the OPAL mission, told Gizmodo. Thats important because these planets are quite far from the Sun, so this will help constrain how they are forming and more about the internal heat and structure of these planets. Most of the extrasolar planets that have been found are this size of planet, though at all sorts of distances from their parent stars.
(Excerpt) Read more at gizmodo.com ...
dare we say it....... CLIMATE CHANGE !!
GlobalClimateWarmingChange is now destroying Uranus!
Stinking white men on Earth who drive trucks are to blame. Naturally.
Anal bleaching?
Another old joke:
What did Mr. Spock find in the Enterprise toilet?
The Captain’s log.
That happens the day after all you can eat Taco Night at the local Beer Bar.
The people at OPAL have placed a hidden camera to watch Uranus.
Sick people.
Harvey says it looks just fine.
My starfish is fine.
The planet tilts nearly 90 degrees so the pole is almost directly facing the sun now. When Voyager went by in the eighties it was such a bland looking planet only the little circles caused by dust on the lens added any visible features.
Because of Global Warming, Alcasio-Gortex says Uranus will melt in 12 years.
My fingers tremble above my keyboard to post the proper reply. I shall not as Jim Rob would ban me to purgatory for a few weeks. :)
Ah, you must be experiencing that Global Warming Alcasio-Goretex was talking about ;)
*ping*
Uranus has experienced a lot worse, I’m sure. Give it time, it’ll recover.
LOL
As long as you don’t make me smell Uranus.
I don’t get it.
I’m sorry, Fry but astronomers renamed Uranus in 2620 to end that stupid joke once and for all.
Oh. What’s it called now?
Urectum.
Its the cosmic dust. The dust off Uranus. Thats whats getting to us. Stay steady. Heehee. Bwaaahaaaaa this is really stupidly.
So hows Uranus, can you feel it melting yet ;)
Uranus, isn’t that Madd Maxine’s district or her twin, Piglosi?
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