Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff from how Stuff Works. Hey, brain stuff,
Speaker 1: Lauren vogelbamb here. Urinus stinks and I'm not joking. This
Speaker 1: enigmatic Outer Solar System planet has long had a credibility problem,
Speaker 1: with it being the butt of countless immature jokes. Now
Speaker 1: astronomers have discovered a gas in Urinas's clouds that does
Speaker 1: nothing to curtail this humor at all. Thanks science, The
Speaker 1: newest study published in the journal Nature Astronomy has discovered
Speaker 1: the chemical signature of hydrogen sulfide in the planet's clouds,
Speaker 1: a compound that gives rotten eggs their distinctive stench. Besides
Speaker 1: launching a bevy of new puns, this finding could transform
Speaker 1: or understanding of how our Solar System evolved. It may
Speaker 1: also help us to understand the atmospheres of massive planets
Speaker 1: orbiting other stars. A first a bit of background. Uranus
Speaker 1: has only been visited by a spacecraft once, when NASA's
Speaker 1: Voyager to zipped past the planet in nineteen The fly
Speaker 1: by produced many beautiful and iconic views of this almost featureless,
Speaker 1: light blue world, and astronomers have made countless ground based
Speaker 1: observations of Uranus in hopes of better understanding the composition
Speaker 1: of its atmosphere. Despite these efforts, however, we know little
Speaker 1: about this far away planet. But the discovery of hydrogen
Speaker 1: sulfide is a big step forward, and it could only
Speaker 1: be done using one of our planets most powerful observatories.
Speaker 1: Using the near infrared integral field spectrometer that's attached to
Speaker 1: the Gemini North telescope in Hawaii, astronomers were able to
Speaker 1: detect the very slight spectroscopic signature of hydrogen sulfide in
Speaker 1: the uppermost layers of uranus is clouds. This whiff of
Speaker 1: hydrogen sulfide is only the tip of the ode differous iceberg. However,
Speaker 1: the presence of this gas is indicative of a huge
Speaker 1: reservoir below the obscuring cloud deck. Co investigator Lee Fletcher
Speaker 1: of the University of Leicester, UK, in a Gemini North statement,
Speaker 1: said only a tiny amount of hydrogen sulfide remains above
Speaker 1: the clouds as saturated vapor, and this is why it's
Speaker 1: so challenging to capture the signatures of ammonia and hydrogen
Speaker 1: sulfide above cloud decks of Uranus. The superior capabilities of
Speaker 1: Gemini finally gave us that lucky break Astronomers have long
Speaker 1: argued over whether hydrogen sulfide or ammonia dominate Uranus's clouds.
Speaker 1: It's well known that the inner massive planets Jupiter and
Speaker 1: Saturn have atmospheres dominated by ammonia ice, whereas Uranus and
Speaker 1: presumably Neptune do not. It's those very differences in atmospheric
Speaker 1: conditions that place Jupiter and Saturn in the gas giant
Speaker 1: category and Uranus and Neptune in the ice giant category,
Speaker 1: and these differences reveal an insight as to where the
Speaker 1: planets formed. As Fletcher said, during our Solar System's formation,
Speaker 1: the balance between nitrogen and sulfur and hence ammonia and
Speaker 1: Uranus's newly detected hydrogen sulfide, was determined by the temperature
Speaker 1: and location of the planet's formation. The thought is that
Speaker 1: early in our Solar System's history, the massive planets migrated
Speaker 1: from where they initially formed, eventually setting into stable orbits
Speaker 1: where we see them today. Through the analysis of chemicals
Speaker 1: in their clouds, astronomers can now formulate theories as to
Speaker 1: how far away from the Sun these giant worlds formed
Speaker 1: and where they migrated from. With this information in mind,
Speaker 1: astronomers can then look to other stars and gain an
Speaker 1: insight as to how and where giant exoplanets formed. This
Speaker 1: is all very interesting, but a big question that scientists
Speaker 1: are likely answering right now is if we could inhale
Speaker 1: Uranus's atmosphere, would it kill us? The smell would certainly
Speaker 1: be unpleasant, but it's not the stench that would kill you.
Speaker 1: A lead study author, Patrick Irwin of the University of Oxford,
Speaker 1: UK explained in the press release suffocation and exposure in
Speaker 1: the negative two hundred degrees Celsie's atmosphere, made mostly of hydrogen,
Speaker 1: helium and methane, would take its toll along the or
Speaker 1: the smell, So we'll skip the vacation plans, but still
Speaker 1: keep an eye on this fascinating, if stinky planet. Today's
Speaker 1: episode was written by Ian O'Neill and produced by Tyler
Speaker 1: Clang with kind engineering assistance from Ramsay youngt. For more
Speaker 1: on this and lots of other far out topics, visit
Speaker 1: our home planet, how stuff Works dot com