Uranus Bright Spot Intrigues Scientists, Leads Astronomers To Ignored Region

Uranus rarely gets any love.

The typically ignored planet, recently highlighted for orbiting the sun on its side, has just gained itself some atypical attention, according to Universe Today. It seems astronomers have detected that an enormous bright spot may be an unprecedented eruption of methane ice high in the atmosphere.

The "ice giant" tends to not get as much attention as closer planets since it orbits the sun an average distance of 1.8 billion miles. However, this new activity is so intense it has amateur astronomers turning to an often-overlooked part of the solar system.

From SkyMania:

Professional images taken using the 8.1-metre Gemini Telescope North on Hawaii have recorded a region said to be ten times brighter than the planetary background.

The spot also happens to sit at an unusually low latitude, according to The Watchers. Previous bright spots on the planet have been observed much further north.

According to Discovery News, planetary scientist Heidi B. Hammel appealed to others on Facebook to confirm the observations. If enough people are able to confirm the findings, it seems the Hubble Space Telescope may interrupt its current observations to take a closer look at the tilted planet.

The observations are particularly important because they provide unique insight into the planet's weather, which according to SkyMania, is mysterious due to its cold nature.

Uranus is a puzzle to astronomers because it is a cold planet that emits very little energy of its own, unlike Jupiter and Saturn which pump out heat as they contract. There also appears to be no large-scale convection in its atmosphere and the Voyager probes detected little weather as they flew by in the early 1980s.

Uranus's weather patterns are so bizarre that, according to Discovery News, the northern hemisphere sees 42 years of sunlight at a time, while the southern hemisphere plunges into 42 years of darkness.

Earlier this month, a new report shed some light on how Uranus may have obtained its odd position. It seems two giant collisions may have set the planet on its side, titling the planet onto its recognizable axis.

Comments

[SolarPowerGuy]

03:50 AM on 11/13/2011

"Uranus rarely gets any love."

Yeah, but I bet Larry Craig's does.

[Rich Cash]

07:02 PM on 11/04/2011

Unfortunately, I suspect that HP has posted these articles about Uranus to give all the adolescents a reason to snicker at their cleverly crafted puns

[rjhuntington]

08:02 AM on 11/04/2011

I'm guessing electrical activity. The bright spots are probably intense lightning. The ring around the end facing the sun is probably an intense aurora due to receiving the solar wind continuously for so long per half orbit. My guess is that the ring will migrate to the other pole during the other half of the planet's orbit.

[southingtonian]

04:11 AM on 11/13/2011

sounds reasonable. unfortunately, 42 years is a bit long (for me) to wait to confirm/refute.

[coffeeparty]

01:54 PM on 11/03/2011

All the bad jokes posted here have caused astronomers to rename Uranus.
It is now called Urectum.

[sparky321]

12:11 PM on 11/03/2011

Uranus is a really fun planet for people who are interested in astrology.

[SolarPowerGuy]

03:51 AM on 11/13/2011

Especially since astrology was invested before anyone could see that planet! Telescopes are required!

[SolarPowerGuy]

12:01 AM on 11/14/2011

Ugh.

Invested?

InveNted.

[coffeeparty]

11:57 AM on 11/03/2011

"Uranus Bright Spot Intrigues Scientists, Leads Astronomers To Ignored Region".
I also have a bright spot on my a.....nah, too easy.
"Uranus rarely gets any love"
Again, too easy.
"Uranus had an unprecedented eruption of methane ice". So did my a.... Enough!
Who wrote this article, Shecky Green?

[REMEMBER2050]

09:25 PM on 11/12/2011

Thank god I read your post! I didn't notice a thing when I read the article. With extremely minor tweaking this might even get in "The Onion."

[FanaticRealist]

11:44 AM on 11/03/2011

"Uranus's weather patterns are so bizarre that, according to Discovery News, the northern hemisphere sees 42 years of sunlight at a time, while the southern hemisphere plunges into 42 years of darkness."

----

Wow, that's some poor journalism.

Nothing to do with weather.

More to do with the fact that it has an 84-year orbit (84.3, if we're being pedantic) and its axis of rotation is tilted sideways, almost matching the plane of its revolution about the Sun.

Half of the orbit, the northern hemisphere gets nearly all the light. And then the south gets it.

The bizarre weather patterns probably happen because of the unique axial tilt and the fact that the small amount of solar energy that makes it to Uranus is absorbed by one hemisphere then the other.

This is another example of the Goldilocks Effect: Earth has just enough tilt to make seasons. If our planet spun upright like a top, the planet would most likely be uninhabitable. As it would be if the planet spun on its side like a gyroscopic toy.

[Curtis inSF]

11:27 AM on 11/03/2011

you said "Uranus"

Why does this planet always turn me into a 12 year old?

[12Purple]

11:52 AM on 11/03/2011

Shoot Curtis I was thinking the same thing.

And the headline "Why Everyone is Looking at Uranus" sent me into such giggling fits that I had to come read the comment section.

How old am I? 12

[Pat Bateman2000]

07:58 AM on 11/03/2011

Was that bright spot bleaching?

[MadamRoma]

07:07 AM on 11/03/2011

At six ax handles across, how could anyone not.

[Bill Sr]

05:48 AM on 11/03/2011

some headlines just write themselves

[Perry Clease]

09:24 AM on 11/03/2011

Oh yeah it is going to be on fark.com

[BoFo]

04:44 AM on 11/03/2011

"... a new report has shed some light on how Uranus may have obtained its odd position ... "

said the doctor to Glenn Beck, pointing to Beck's face.

[srynmichael2]

08:26 PM on 11/06/2011

Really?

[BoFo]

08:29 PM on 11/06/2011

Yep.

[observer007]

01:36 AM on 11/03/2011

Has anyone noticed that most of the jokes are based on the mispronunciation of the planet's name? Look it up in the dictionary or some other book designed to help people learn how to speak English.

[Allgernon]

07:41 AM on 11/03/2011

That was tiresome and unnecessary.

[rjhuntington]

08:30 AM on 11/03/2011

so what

[rysagr]

11:24 PM on 11/02/2011

everyone is watching uranus. nothing like having that headline right above kate middleton's pic on the front page of hp.two thumbs up

[Vanderbil Covington]

11:08 PM on 11/02/2011

Planets outside of this solar system, have always fascinated astronomers since Nicholus Copernicus re-discovered heliocentricity (sun centered systems). However, astrophysicist are still bound to believe every planet must follow accepted parameters to create and sustain life forms, as known to modern science. This is in TOTAL error. Each planet has evolved conditions where life forms have adopted over time -- just as on Earth -- but in completely different environments. Another assumption suggest all life must be carbon based, -- which it is not. Further, the larger "gas giants" (Jupiter, Neptune, Uranus, Saturn), as they are referred to, have much larger solid masses than reported to have. Having a deep atomosphere does NOT mean the planets are entirely gaseous. Modern science has much to RE-learn what the ancients knew of the cosmos. They must also admit the tenacity and evolvement of life has taken many forms
for untold ages, adding to the mystries of creation

[rjhuntington]

08:37 AM on 11/03/2011

"Having a deep atmosphere does NOT mean the planets are entirely gaseous."

I quite agree and would go further to state that it is impossible for a planet of any size to be entirely gaseous. There must be a solid core for an atmosphere to accumulate. Gases diffuse, they do not coalesce without something to coalesce around due to gravity. Gases cannot coalesce without something solid as the core, standard cosmological theory notwithstanding, which means that the standard myth of stellar creation from a collapsing hydrogen cloud is a fairy tale. Yes, science has much to learn and relearn.

[cynicalmass]

02:02 PM on 11/03/2011

This is complete nonsense. The sun is a huge ball of gas, much larger than the outer gas planets, with no solid core. It is absolutely NOT necessary for a planet to have a solid core for it to accumulate gases. Gravity works on all matter, not just matter containing rock or ice components.

That said, I agree that the outer planets probably do have solid cores, but it is by no means a prerequisite for their formation or existence.