Posted on 11/27/2024 9:43:56 AM PST by Red Badger
The peculiar layers could explain the ice giants' magnetic peculiarities.
Uranus (left) and Neptune (right) are the ice blue giants in the outer Solar System.
Image credit: Patrick Irwin/University of Oxford/NASA
Uranus and Neptune were only visited once by human spacecraft when Voyager 2 passed by them almost 40 years ago. During those visits, scientists measured peculiar magnetic fields unlike those seen around other planets. A recent paper suggests that the Uranus measurements might have been messed up by the Sun, but in general, it has been difficult to explain the behavior. New research suggests that the magnetic weirdness might be due to oceans below the atmosphere.
Giant planets tend to have gassy layers on the outside, liquid layers down below, and a solid core at their center. Burkhard Militzer from the University of California Berkeley has created a computer model to try and explain the magnetic field. It suggests that below the atmosphere of the planets, there is water, methane, and ammonia.
The pressures below the atmosphere are high, creating two distinct layers: below, a layer of oily hydrocarbons and ammonia, which have lost some hydrogen, and above, the water and hydrogen. The model suggests that Uranus has a rocky core the size of Mercury. This is surrounded by an 8,000-kilometer (5,000-mile) thick layer rich in hydrocarbons. Above it sits a layer with the same thickness but made of water, and, to top it all off, an atmosphere 5,000 kilometers (3,000 miles) thick.
Neptune is similar in size to Uranus but not exactly a twin. It is more massive but smaller. The model suggests a thinner atmosphere and a larger core (roughly the size of Mars) but two equally thick layers of water and hydrocarbons.
“We now have, I would say, a good theory why Uranus and Neptune have really different fields, and it’s very different from Earth, Jupiter, and Saturn,” Militzer said in a statement. “We didn’t know this before. It’s like oil and water, except the oil goes below because hydrogen is lost.”
The measurements from Voyager 2 suggest that the magnetic fields of Uranus and Neptune are disorganized, very different from the nice north-south field we experience here on Earth. For Militzer, the reason is to be found in the lack of convection in these two worlds. The hydrocarbon layer is stably stratified almost like a plastic polymer, according to the model, so it doesn’t allow convection.
“If you ask my colleagues, ‘What do you think explains the fields of Uranus and Neptune?’ they may say, ‘Well, maybe it’s this diamond rain, but maybe it’s this water property which we call superionic,’” he said. “From my perspective, this is not plausible. But if we have this separation into two separate layers, that should explain it.”
It will be interesting to see if this model can consistently recreate the layers even with the new insights from the reanalysis of Voyager 2's magnetic data. A solar storm is believed to have caused Uranus to exhibit several strange magnetic features that are not actually present in its usual state.
A paper discussing these results is published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
There absolutely can be. One could argue that Christians (and for that matter Jews and Muslims) who believe in a Creator don't have to win the argument of whether or not life is elsewhere. It's quite possible God created advanced life just on Earth, and it's quite possible that God created advanced life in other places besides Earth.
However, can that be said for the people who believe we came into existence by a bunch of accidents? IMHO, the people who believe that random chance created us through what's colloquial called the "law of averages" in many situations across many planets in many systems in multiple galaxies ... for just the right combination of accidents to create life on Earth, doesn't it stand to reason that similar accidents created life elsewhere? Thus, the absence of advanced life elsewhere (or at least of us finding it) bigly undermines their argument of that much order created randomly from chaos. Somewhat, though not directly IMHO, violating the entropy aspect of 2nd Law of Thermodynamics.
Until we find advanced life elsewhere, no matter how hard we keep looking and looking, it would appear to me that our Earth and advanced life on it is an example of design, not accident.
Or as Romans 1:19-20 state in the link I posted earlier: because that which is known about God is evident within them, for God made it evident to them. 20 For ever since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through His workmanship [all His creation, the wonderful things that He has made], so that they [who fail to believe and trust in Him] are without excuse and without defense.
Headline writers having fun again!
Uranus is closer.....................
How many dinosaurs died on Uranus and Neptune to create those hydrocarbons.
“below, a layer of oily hydrocarbons”
I always bring this up when liberals use the term “fossil fuels” or “renewable” or “oil is evil and unnatural.”
How many dinosaurs were on Uranus???
The jokes write themselves.
Thanks Red Badger. :^)
[snip] Giant planets tend to have gassy layers on the outside, liquid layers down below, and a solid core at their center. Burkhard Militzer from the University of California Berkeley has created a computer model to try and explain the magnetic field. It suggests that below the atmosphere of the planets, there is water, methane, and ammonia... The model suggests that Uranus has a rocky core the size of Mercury. This is surrounded by an 8,000-kilometer (5,000-mile) thick layer rich in hydrocarbons. Above it sits a layer with the same thickness but made of water, and, to top it all off, an atmosphere 5,000 kilometers (3,000 miles) thick. Neptune is similar in size to Uranus but not exactly a twin. It is more massive but smaller. The model suggests a thinner atmosphere and a larger core (roughly the size of Mars) but two equally thick layers of water and hydrocarbons. [/snip]
There’s enough hydrocarbons just on Saturn’s moon Titan alone to supply the energy needs of the earth for 10,000 years, much less the outer planets................
Oh, I did. oops
Imodium can help
I’m still waiting on Uranus and Neptune to be new baby names.
OMG! You get the prize!
There was a petition to the IAU which basically said a mistake was made and it is time to fix it. Change the planets name to “Ouranos”
There is water deep inside Uranus. They make products to help with that.
Let’s give Uranus a break. It’s taken enough of a pounding over the years.
Water or ice? If it’s ice, we still have to send an SUV to induce habitable temperatures and melting.
“How many dinosaurs died on Uranus and Neptune to create those hydrocarbons.”
For your education:
...and maybe there are rivers of gold!
Isn’t an deep water ocean in Uranus just called an enema?
“..only visited once by human spacecraft ..”
What a strange descriptor!
Was the spacecraft a human? How did he survive?
What spacecraft are designated as human? Designed by? Operated by? Living breathing spacecraft? Do human spacecraft have blood pressure?
I’ve got so many questions.
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