Image courtesy of JPL/NAS
Joel Kontinen
Carbon monoxide in Uranus's deep atmosphere in dictates that the planet contains more ice than rock, suggesting it formed more like Neptune than we thought.
It seems that Uranus has more water than scientist taught,
but it is inside the planet. Genesis seems
to indicate that all planets had water in them.
Uranus appears to have far more water frozen as ice in its interior than astronomers thought, potentially settling a long-runnig mystery about whether it formed differently to its closest neighbour, Neptune.
Ice giants
like Uranus and Neptune have thick, gassy atmospheres.
This makes it hard to know what is inside the planets’ interiors or how they
formed. Scientists can, however, measure gases in their atmospheres, which they
can then link to processes and elements deeper inside.
Carbon
monoxide in a planet’s atmosphere is often associated with its deepest parts
being rich in water or ice, but while neighbouring Neptune has displayed
abundant carbon monoxide suggestive of an ice-rich centre, Uranus has been lacking, which has
led some astronomers to argue it instead has a rocky interior. If true, this
would mean that Neptune and Uranus formed in very different ways and aren’t as
similar as they appear
Source:
Alex Wilkins
Posts
