Uranus has Bizarre Weather

[n2doc]

New infrared images of Uranus show details not seen before. Credit: NASA/ESA/L. A. Sromovsky/P. M. Fry/H. B. Hammel/I. de Pater/K. A. Rages

Here’s the scene: a thick, tempestuous atmosphere with winds blowing at a clip of 900 km/h (560 mph); massive storms that would engulf continents here on Earth, and temperatures in the -220 C (-360 degree F) range. Sounds like a cold Hell, but this is the picture emerging of the planet Uranus, revealed in new high-resolution infrared images from the Keck Observatory in Hawaii, exposing in incredible detail the bizarre weather of a planet that was once thought to be rather placid.

“My first reaction to these images was ‘wow’ and then my second reaction was ‘WOW,’” said Heidi Hammel, a co-investigator on the new observations. “These images reveal an astonishing amount of complexity in Uranus’ atmosphere. We knew the planet was active, but until now much of the activity was masked by noise in our data.”


Read more: http://www.universetoday.com/98049/uranus-has-bizarre-weather/

[Politicalboi]

1. Hmmmm!

I don't feel a thing. Oh wait!

[zbdent]

2. prone to sudden gusts of methane ...

[still_one]

3. At first I thought you were talking about my ass. (sorry, could not help myself)

[barnabas63]

4. lol I knew ..

...there'd be some silly comments here.

[still_one]

6. So great minds have similar threads

[Lebam in LA]

11. That is why I clicked on this one too

I couldn't stop giggling

[Wednesdays]

12. LOL

The real pronunciation is oo-RAH-noos. Not URINE-us and certainly not your-ANUS.

[Odin2005]

5. Poor Greeks, the name for their primordial sky god sounds like an English vulgarity.

[RoccoR5955]

7. How do you know what's going on

with my anus?!?!


Actually it's pretty interesting. Thanks for the update.

[tandot]

8. Sorry :(

Beans just do that to me

[elehhhhna]

9. I know. It's the antibiotics.

[elehhhhna]

10. It's always been a little windy.

budump-bump

[Thor_MN]

13. Sorry, I know it's been a bit windy lately, but I try take it outside

At least I more bark than bite...

The potential energy can be expended in one of two ways, either volume or "silent, but deadly"

[HooptieWagon]

14. I blame the passing windstorm on the dog, Pluto.

[libodem]

15. Uranus

Is is blowing a shit storm.

[Posteritatis]

16. Wow, every single response was straight out of seventh grade. (nt)

[libodem]

19. Yes

You would think science people were less crude. But jokes about Uranus are just too tempting to resist.

[YankeyMCC]

17. I like that quote about her reaction

"Wow." "WOW!"

Here's to more wow's developing from Keck Observatory!

[Phoonzang]

18. We should really change the name of that planet.

If we can un-planet Pluto, we can surely change Uranus to Cronos.