Posted on 03/26/2020 7:20:45 PM PDT by BenLurkin
As NASA reports in a new post, researchers recently discovered that Voyager 2 cruised through a blob of charged gas called a plasmoid as it passed the planet. The spacecraft’s journey through the plasmoid lasted only about a minute, but that was still long enough for scientists to spot the anomaly in the decades-old data.
The scientists believe that gas loss may have already drained as much 55% of the planet’s atmosphere. Loss of atmosphere resulting in plasmoids has been observed around other planets in our solar system, including Saturn and Jupiter, though it’s thought that Uranus has leaked far more of its gas than the rest.
Uranus is an incredibly strange planet when compared to its peers in our system. It rotates on its side, making it an immediate standout. On top of that, it has a distinct wobble that astronomers have been trying to explain for a long time. It’s believed that a massive object slammed into Uranus a long time ago, and its bizarre movement today is a direct result of that event.
“The data revealed a helical bundle of magnetic flux containing planetary plasma, known as a ‘plasmoid,’ in the tail of the magnetosphere,” the researchers write in a paper published in Geophysical Research Letters. “This first observation of a plasmoid in an Ice Giant magnetosphere elucidates processes that occur in the magnetosphere of Uranus and suggests that plasmoids may play a large role in transporting plasma.”
(Excerpt) Read more at bgr.com ...
Sorry. Your wit was probably wasted on my limited intelligence. LOL
So? So is yours and Nadler’s.
5.56mm
Title “Uranus is Leaking Gas.”
For a moment I thought this would be an article on using high dose VItamin C tretment for Covid-19.
Two words: Sphincter Exercises.
Blame my wife. She watches a lot of “Big Bang Theory”, a show about nerds, and their humor is weird. I got infected with it.
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