Posted on 03/31/2021 4:05:23 PM PDT by BenLurkin
Plenty of solar system objects emit X-rays — everything from Venus to Saturn to moons of Jupiter, the scientists write in a paper describing their research. In fact, of the solar system's planets, only little-studied Uranus and Neptune were missing from the list.
The team of astronomers were particularly drawn to study Uranus in X-rays because the planet's alignments are quite jumbled: the planet lies on its side and the axis of its magnetic field is akimbo from both the orbital plane and the spin axis. The skewed axes may trigger particularly complicated auroras, which can emit X-rays.
So the scientists decided to dig into the scant Chandra observations of Uranus — just three segments of data, one from August 2002 and two from November 2017. The 2002 and 2017 observations also come from different instruments on the telescope, and in the 2017 data, the researchers can't clearly mark which X-rays come from the planet itself and which from elsewhere in the detector's view.
If some of the X-rays the researchers detected are indeed coming from Uranus itself, rather than reflected emissions from the sun, a few phenomena could be at play, the scientists wrote. Saturn's rings produce X-ray fluorescence when hit by charged particles from the sun, and Uranus' two sets of rings may do the same. Or, the X-rays may come from auroras on Uranus, as they do on Jupiter, although scientists aren't positive what would trigger the auroras themselves.
(Excerpt) Read more at space.com ...
But it’s so purty.
Here before the usual jokes.
“Here before the usual jokes.”
Darn, I said, as I slink away in shame.
It’s probably gas.
I knew I should not have had the radioactive burrito.
My dentist needs to recalibrate at conjunction
with the moon—check.
LOL
This ought to get interesting pretty quick.
Or, the X-rays may come from auroras on Uranus>>>>>>>>>
My elderly , geriatric grand mother used to complain about this.
She couldn’t sleep.
It’s been known to be active on occasion especially after Mexican food
Uranus doesn’t belch, it farts.
William Wallace phenomenon: bolts of lightning from his arse.
Just what I'd expect from a bunch of scientists.
> Here before the usual jokes.
Belching? I thought they meant felching.
“Here before the usual jokes.”
My first thought was ‘oh boy, here we go’.
I know Myanus doesn’t belch.
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