NASA
Two teams have concluded separately that Uranus is releasing more internal heat than indicated in Voyager’s observations – that is, he is warmer than we thought.
Instead of just reflecting the heat of the sun, the planet adds some of its own heat. Articles still have to be reviewed by peers, but in addition to the teams to have reached independently Similar conclusionsthe discoveries put Uranus more in line with their giant giant companions.
According to, the Planets have three heat sources. There is the energy that is left of the gravitational potential of its components, radioactivity and the heat of the sun.
The first of these sources initially makes the planets very hot, allowing us to see young planets to many light years away, but dissipated largely after more than 4 billion years. The balance between the other two depends on the degree of radioactivity of isotopes that make up the planet and its distance from the sun.
As Voyager Missions revealed an apparent discrepancy between Uranus and the other three gaseous giants. Unlike others, Uranus seemed to have no excess heat beyond the reflection of sunlight, which suggests a minimum of radioactive isotopes. Since Uranus and Neptune are so similar to each other in most aspects, the difference was surprising, and comparisons with Jupiter and Saturn indicated that it was Anono that was anomaly.
We have not returned the uranus since then, but the telescopes on earth and orbit have advanced enough to allow a second look.
Patrick IrwinProfessor at Oxford University, and his co-authors used observations made between 2000 and 2009 by the Hubble Space Telescope and the Gemini North and Infrared Telescope Telescopes Facility of NASA in Hawaii. They then sought to adjust the fact that Uranus is at the time near the equinox, instead of the solstice when Voyager passed. The study is in site from Cornell University.
A team led by Xinyue Wanga student at the University of Houston, used observations starting in the mid -twentieth century and added those of the most advanced instruments as they were available, extrapolating to a complete orbit of 84 years. The study is in site from Cornell University.
Both teams concluded that or Voyager 2 made a wrong measurement Or it went through an unusual height, leading the planetary scientists to a wrong conclusion. There is evidence that this may be the case with other characteristics on the planet, so there may be something wrong.
Anyway, “uranus is not as strange as we thought,” he said Irwin.
Both teams concluded that uranus reflects more heat for the space What Voyager reported, which implies an internal source. Teams differ slightly in terms of excessive heat-12.5% for one team, 15% to the other, but the margins of error are overlapping They are actually agreement.
Both estimates of excess heat are still much smaller than any of the other giant planets – Neptune produces so much internal heat that radiates more than twice as they receive, and the other two are close. “Uranus remains an isolated case“, Disse Irwin.
The reasons for this fact are not yet clear, but may be related to the collision that is thought to be put aside. The extreme axial inclination of uranus increases the seasonal variation of the amount of heat that radiates, which is why Wang’s team chose to make estimates on an entire orbit.
Wang and its co-authors say that “the icing mission of uranus, as recommended by the recent study, Fwill be organized crucial observations to answer unresolved questions and advance our understanding of this enigmatic ice giant. ”
Teresa Oliveira Campos, Zap //
