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Mysteries of Uranus; Need for further exploration

Дата публикации: 13-08-2026 13:30:18



Основное содержимое страницы с новостью.

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loop quantum gravity said:

I didn't understand what is that "hot slush".

REf: https://science.nasa.gov/uranus/facts/

Uranus is one of two ice giants in the outer solar system (the other is Neptune). Most (80% or more) of the planet's mass is made up of a hot dense fluid of "icy" materials – water, methane, and ammonia – above a small rocky core. Near the core, it heats up to 9,000 degrees Fahrenheit (4,982 degrees Celsius).


Uranus' atmosphere is mostly hydrogen and helium, with a small amount of methane and traces of water and ammonia. The methane gives Uranus its signature blue color.

While Voyager 2 saw only a few discrete clouds, a Great Dark Spot, and a small dark spot during its flyby in 1986 – more recent observations reveal that Uranus exhibits dynamic clouds as it approaches equinox, including rapidly changing bright features.

Uranus' planetary atmosphere, with a minimum temperature of 49K (-224.2 degrees Celsius) makes it even colder than Neptune in some places.

Wind speeds can reach up to 560 miles per hour (900 kilometers per hour) on Uranus. Winds are retrograde at the equator, blowing in the reverse direction of the planet’s rotation. But closer to the poles, winds shift to a prograde direction, flowing with Uranus' rotation.

Somewhere in between the core and upper atmosphere, between temperatures of 5255 K and 49 K is the spot where temperature and pressure allow 'ice' to form within a fluid of water, methane and ammonia, which have different melting points depending on pressure. Most qualitative articles do not discuss inhomogeneities and phases in the interior structure.

A James Webb related site on Facebook mentions

The interior of Uranus is thought to consist of several layers. At its core, there’s likely a dense mixture of rock (silicates) and metals, possibly surrounded by a layer of high-pressure water, ammonia, and methane ices.

Above this, a thick mantle of icy materials, primarily water, ammonia, and methane in a fluid or semi-fluid state, exists under extreme pressure and temperature.

The outermost layer is a gaseous atmosphere composed mostly of hydrogen (about 83%) and helium (15%), with traces of methane (2%) and other gases, giving Uranus its pale blue-green color due to methane absorbing red light.

UC Berkeley News
https://news.berkeley.edu/2024/11/2...ath-the-bland-surfaces-of-uranus-and-neptune/

A planetary scientist [Burkhard Militzer] at the University of California, Berkeley, now proposes an alternative theory — that the interiors of both these planets are layered, and that the two layers, like oil and water, don’t mix. That configuration neatly explains the planets’ unusual magnetic fields and implies that earlier theories of the interiors are unlikely to be true.

The publications shows illustrations of the interior structures of Uranus and Neptune.

Burkhard Militzer, Phase separation of planetary ices explains nondipolar magnetic fields of Uranus and Neptune
https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2403981121

Abstract
The Voyager spacecraft discovered that the ice giants Uranus and Neptune have nondipolar magnetic fields, defying expectations that a thick interior layer of planetary ices would generate strong dipolar fields. Stanley and Bloxham showed that nondipolar fields emerge if the magnetic field is only generated in a thin outer layer. However, the origin and composition of this dynamo active layer has so far remained elusive. Here, we show with ab initio computer simulations that a mixture of H2O, CH4, and NH3 will phase separate under the pressure–temperature condition in the interiors of Uranus and Neptune, forming a H2O-dominated fluid in the upper mantle and a CH4-NH3 mixture below. We further demonstrate that with increasing pressure, the CH4-NH3 mixture becomes increasingly hydrogen depleted as it assumes the state of a polymeric C-N-H fluid. Since the amount of hydrogen loss increases with pressure, we propose that the C-N-H fluid forms a stably stratified layer. The magnetic fields are primarily generated in an upper layer that is H2O-rich, homogeneous, convective, and electrically conducting. Under these assumptions, we construct ensembles of models for the interiors of Uranus and Neptune with the Concentric MacLaurin Spheroid method. We demonstrate that the phase separation of the solar-type H2O-CH4-NH3 mixture leads to models that match the observed gravity field and to layer thicknesses that are compatible with magnetic field measurements.

The paper is probably at an upper class or graduate level.

As for a 'normal' day, that seems somewhat subjective, but I presume it means 'normal' for Uranus, which may be different from 'normal' on other planets. I take 'normal' to mean 'about average', i.e., somewhere between extremes, or perhaps 'expected conditions. 'About average' or 'about the mean' could be based on time-weighted observations.

I look at monthly precipitation and daily temperatures locally, and the meteorological site indicates 'normal' precipitation, which is an average over 3 or 5. years of observation (it mentions 3, but it seems more like 5, since the 'normal' value has not changed.)

I would expect 'normal' to vary seasonally.

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