Researchers Solve Long-Standing Mystery After Voyager's 1986 Flyby of Uranus

"The planet Uranus emits more heat than it gets from the Sun," reports Science Daily , citing a new study led by University of Houston researchers, in collaboration with planetary scientists worldwide. "This means it's still slowly losing leftover heat from its early history," says the first author on the paper, "a key piece of the puzzle that helps us understand its origins and how it has changed over time."

The study found the planet emitting about 12.5% more heat than it absorbs via sunlight, which "suggests Uranus does have its own internal heat — an advance that not only informs NASA's future missions but also deepens scientists' understanding of planetary systems, including processes that influence Earth's climate and atmospheric evolution." The discovery resolves a long-standing scientific mystery about the giant planet, because observational analyses from Voyager 2 in 1986 didn't suggest the presence of significant internal heat — contradicting scientists' understanding of how giant planets form and evolve...

Additionally, the team's methodology provides testable theories and models that could also be applied to explore radiant energy of other planets within and beyond our solar system... It could even impact technology innovation and climate understanding on Earth [giving insights into "the fundamental processes that shape planetary atmospheres, weather systems and climate systems," said one of the paper's authors.]
The article adds that the researchers now think the planet "may have a different interior structure or evolutionary history compared to the other giant planets."

Flyby of Uranus

[Anonymous Coward]

well if you walk around without wearing pants...

It would be surprising if it wasn't shedding more

[HiThere]

It would be surprising if it wasn't shedding more heat than it receives from the sun:
Uranus is pretty distant from the sun, so it doesn't get much solar heating. Large blobs of gas tend to collapse, emitting heat in the process. Pieces of rock tend to have radioactive components. Etc.

That said, 12% seems a bit higher than I would expect.

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

Uranus is pretty distant from the sun

At the very least, it's kept where the sun don't shine.

Re:

[Dan East]

It would be surprising if it wasn't shedding more heat than it receives from the sun:

Yeah, you'd think these astrophysics would have done some math on this or something. The mystery is actually the opposite of what you think, which is that Uranus does not emit as much energy as expected, as compared to other gas planets.

An additional mystery is that the emission of energy is very uneven geographically across the planet (deviating by as much 85%), and it also varies from season to season.

Re:

[jd]

It's possible to conjecture - we know it collided with something massive, so if said body contained very limited radioactive materials, one might expect this to reduce the radioactivity per unit mass.

Is this the answer? Probably not, but it's good enough (I think) to argue that a simple answer is possible.

Re: It would be surprising if it wasn't shedding m

[Z00L00K]

Giveen that it must have had some pretty serious history given the axial tilt I'm not that surprised.

This material writes itself

[sacrilicious]

"Uranus does have its own internal heat"

I'm a weak man... a weak, petty man...

There will never be a serious discussion

[zawarski]

when you name a planet after your butt hole.

Re: There will never be a serious discussion

[50000BTU_barbecue]

I don't think there's a planet called Billy?

Re:

[OrangAsm]

Is that what you've named your butthole? Billy? I guess it makes sense that someone with a handle like yours would have the need to name their anus.

Re: There will never be a serious discussion

[Z00L00K]

That's what you get when you name your rear end by the name of a Greek god

If you can't stand the heat.....

[registrations_suck]

...then stay away from Uranus!

"Probing Uranus sounds too gay"

[Tablizer]

strengthens the case for NASA's upcoming mission

The Trump admin isn't into scientific probes, they want human glory flights that Don can brag about. It will have to be reworded to slip it past their "Woke Cops". How about "Mission to prove planets only have 2 genders", or rename Uranus to _____

Re:

[Tablizer]

Scientifically or logically prove it, and I'll give you $1k.

Re:

[Tablizer]

No they didn't; your history is wrong.

They used to judge by genital appearance, but roughly 1 in 500 people are born with ambiguous genitals. Then the Y chromosome was discovered, but didn't always match genitals such that under ambiguity parents were given the choice of which gender they wanted to raise such child.

> Manufacturing new genders

It's not about new genders, but about ignoring past arbitrary habits because one hates change more than they love humanity.

Re:

[Tablizer]

P.S. Pay up the 1 grand, MagaBreath!

Re:

[Dragonslicer]

...or rename Uranus to _____

Urectum

Re:

[gestalt_n_pepper]

Better than a medically illiterate fool.

Oh, but I'm sure you know better than doctors who have spent their lives studying these things like the authors of this article: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/b... [nih.gov]

Just like politicians who take contributions from oil companies know more about climate change than thousands of climate scientists who've spent their lives studying weather and climate.

You're not a deplorable as much as a "gullible."

Re:

[OrangAsm]

That would explain my cowardly little brother, who will remain anonymous.

Re: 1986

[greytree]

TFS:
She got hot and this led to her receiving heat from her son, but not as much as one would normally expect, which is surprising but can now be explained.

o rly?

[argStyopa]

"may have a different interior structure or evolutionary history compared to the other giant planets."

I'm pretty sure we already expect that:
- axial tilt of about 98 degrees
- magnetic axis tilted 60 degrees from rotational axis
- magnetic axis offset from its center
- axial spin is retrograde ... all of which, to me, suggest a collision with a sizeable body OR capture but the orbital dynamics of that would seem unlikely.

Re:

[argStyopa]

Nice to see I'm still living in your head, psycho.
I think I'll put down some shag carpet, maybe hang some pictures.

Do you dream about me? Maybe get a little tumescent?

Earth is still cooling so slowly

[Ajay Anand]

Earth is cooling too slowly, at the rate of 120 degrees per billion years at the mantle despite receiving so much radiation from the sun. No wonder the share of residual heat in emissions from father planets is high. I still don't understand why emission higher than incoming solar radiation be considered a mystery? Volcanoes do erupt even on a 4.5 billion year old Earth.