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.
PING!..................
Stop it all of you. Don’t even think it.
So and ...?
Maybe inside YOUR anus...
Basically, they're trying to keep arguing the non-existence of God even though creation says otherwise, just like in Romans 1:18-23. So they can keep arguing in favor of modern day hedonism (verses 24-25), including gay hedonism (verses 26-27), and also argue in favor of even worse sins like murder and rooting for Auburn (verses 28-32).
Full disclosure, I was kidding about it being a sin to root for Auburn. At least from an exegetical reading.
Too late
Does the water release when a person has diarrhea?
A futile cry for sanity. It must be suppressed ruthlessly.
What do you call an ocean in Uranus? Diarrhea?
Time to disconnect the bidet?
rooting for Auburn?
I must have missed that one............Must be in the New King James Version.............
We need to probe....
....Neptune
Yes, I have tested this theory.
Why can’t there be a universal God as well as”intelligent” life elsewhere? The two are not exclusive.
Watching humans decide what God is not allowed to do is kinda amusing....
Nothing in the story about intelligent life, just maybe something swimming around up there.
Just maybe good eatin' {snicker}
Extraterrestrial farmers.
That's where they practice their crop circle techniques.
🤫
Except they produce carbon dioxide. TAX URANUS!
Pepto!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.