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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsUranus might be full of surprises
....when University of Arizona astronomer Erich Karkoschka took another look, he saw a different story. He presented his findings this week at the meeting of the Division for Planetary Science of the American Astronomical Association.
Karkoshchka believes that Uranus's southern hemisphere rotates in a way never before seen in gas giants. A gas planet's thick atmosphere, filled with clouds, typically shows the same rate of rotation at the top and bottom. But on Uranus, it seems, the southern hemisphere is cycling much more quickly than up north as much as 15 percent faster.
"The unusual rotation of high southern latitudes of Uranus is probably due to an unusual feature in the interior of Uranus," Karkoshcka said in a statement. "While the nature of the feature and its interaction with the atmosphere are not yet known, the fact that I found this unusual rotation offers new possibilities to learn about the interior of a giant planet."
Data on gas giants in general are few and far between, so anything that Karkoshcka can glean about Uranus's core would help scientists understand the other planets like it.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2014/11/14/uranus-might-be-full-of-surprises/?Post+generic=%3Ftid%3Dsm_twitter_washingtonpost
Scootaloo
(25,699 posts)That poor planet and its name.
longship
(40,416 posts)And the A is a short A, pronounced "ah"
So it's proper pronunciation is YUR-ah-nus, low hanging sophomoric humor notwithstanding (so to speak).
Fred Sanders
(23,946 posts)WinkyDink
(51,311 posts)longship
(40,416 posts)Art_from_Ark
(27,247 posts)longship
(40,416 posts)And pop culture -- I imagine from the obvious joke -- is partially the origin of the yur-A-nus pronunciation. But I can't remember the last time I heard an astronomer pronounce it that way.
It's YUR-ah-nus, with a short A and the accent on the first syllable.
I confess that it's a bit of a bugaboo of mine.
Sorry.
My regards.
BeanMusical
(4,389 posts)Professor Farnsworth: I'm sorry, Fry, but astronomers renamed Uranus in 2620 to end that stupid joke once and for all.
Fry: Oh. What's it called now?
Professor: Urrectum. Here, let me locate it for you.
longship
(40,416 posts)still_one
(92,219 posts)words like rectum
hfojvt
(37,573 posts)that it was pronounced as anus until the junior high thugs noticed and then suddenly the new pronunciation was created and propagated. "They're laughing at us for saying anus, we need to start saying yoor-an-us."
longship
(40,416 posts)CrispyQ
(36,478 posts)by Charles Harrington Elster
November 1, 1988
http://www.amazon.com/There-Is-Zoo-Zoology-Mispronunciations/dp/0020318308
There is a companion book, "Is There a Cow in Moscow?" that is also, good, but not quite as good as Zoo.
I love these books!
AnalystInParadise
(1,832 posts)control how words are pronounced in situ of the dictionary......... I never knew scientists had this power.
longship
(40,416 posts)AnalystInParadise
(1,832 posts)Does the Oxford committee know that they are powerless in the face of science when it comes to words?
Ricochet21
(3,794 posts)1. UR-ah-nus
2. ur-RAY-nus
Nevernose
(13,081 posts)In the 1800s -- in all the classical mythology texts -- so I always assumed that was the correct phonic translation.
True Blue Door
(2,969 posts)"Uranus Probed (titter titter)."
We should just go to the Latinized Greek spelling, "Ouranos."
Initech
(100,080 posts)Orsino
(37,428 posts)longship
(40,416 posts)Ricochet21
(3,794 posts)Prometheus
Especially after my 5 alarm chili
Liberal_in_LA
(44,397 posts)SheilaT
(23,156 posts)that a version of Global Warming is going on in Uranus's southern hemisphere.
Jackpine Radical
(45,274 posts)to be blown off lightly.
True Blue Door
(2,969 posts)If you dumped liquid nitrogen into it, you would warm it.
SheilaT
(23,156 posts)and his response was: "like Neptune, badly in need of an orbiter mission, though that is likely to be several decades out."
True Blue Door
(2,969 posts)Had to leave because of health issues making the work load impractical.
Warren DeMontague
(80,708 posts)I agree, I'd like to see orbiters at both Neptune and Uranus. There is a lot of interesting real estate in the Solar System, though.
SheilaT
(23,156 posts)Why oh why couldn't it have been given a proper Latin name like "Caelus?"
IDemo
(16,926 posts)Although the classic pronunciation lends itself to great laughs, almost all astronomers pronounce it "YUR-uh-niss".
KamaAina
(78,249 posts)"Urine-us".
Bobbie Jo
(14,341 posts)PeoViejo
(2,178 posts)I often get
that warm feeling
on the back of my neck.
customerserviceguy
(25,183 posts)"You're in us."
Yep, no help.
Cha
(297,314 posts)awoke_in_2003
(34,582 posts)jberryhill
(62,444 posts)Thor_MN
(11,843 posts)"When did I eat corn?"
JeffHead
(1,186 posts)hifiguy
(33,688 posts)But in all seriousness cosmology and astrophysics are perhaps the most fascinating subjects I know.
Cha
(297,314 posts)studying the Planets. And, I pronounce it "U RON US".. so as not to confuse it with another referral.
Uranus is a greenish-blue planet, twice as far from the Sun as its neighbor Saturn. Uranus wasn't discovered until 1781. Its discoveror, William Herschel, named it Georgium Sidus (the Georgian star) after the English king, George III. Later its name was changed to Uranus, after an ancient Greek sky god, since all the other planets had been named after Roman and Greek gods.
Size: 4 times larger than Earth in diameter Diameter: 32,193 miles (51,810 km)
Surface: Little is known Atmosphere: Hydrogen, helium, and methane
http://www.factmonster.com/science/astronomy/planet-uranus.html
dmr
(28,347 posts)It looks like a beautiful opal.
Cha
(297,314 posts)CrispyQ
(36,478 posts)Lovely!
TwilightGardener
(46,416 posts)awoke_in_2003
(34,582 posts)"Oh my"
Boom Sound 416
(4,185 posts)hootinholler
(26,449 posts)The more I'm surprised by it.
Aerows
(39,961 posts)Pintos and Cheese and 2 Taco Supremes. Not much could surprise me.
aggiesal
(8,918 posts)This is way to easy.
Uranus might be full of surprises?
Really?
Can we even hold back?
rug
(82,333 posts)Just cheap.
MrScorpio
(73,631 posts)madinmaryland
(64,933 posts)El Supremo
(20,365 posts)madinmaryland
(64,933 posts)Warren DeMontague
(80,708 posts)to find out for sure.
muriel_volestrangler
(101,321 posts)that would be my first place to look for why one hemisphere was behaving differently from the other at one point in its year (which is 84 of your Earth years). And if this all comes from data from Voyager 2, 3 decades ago, things might be quite different by now. 1986 was its southern hemisphere summer solstice.
Northern hemisphere Year Southern hemisphere
Winter solstice 1902, 1986 Summer solstice
Vernal equinox 1923, 2007 Autumnal equinox
Summer solstice 1944, 2028 Winter solstice
Autumnal equinox 1965, 2049 Vernal equinox
One result of this axis orientation is that, averaged over the Uranian year, the polar regions of Uranus receive a greater energy input from the Sun than its equatorial regions. Nevertheless, Uranus is hotter at its equator than at its poles. The underlying mechanism that causes this is unknown. The reason for Uranus's unusual axial tilt is also not known with certainty, but the usual speculation is that during the formation of the Solar System, an Earth-sized protoplanet collided with Uranus, causing the skewed orientation.[52] Uranus's south pole was pointed almost directly at the Sun at the time of Voyager 2's flyby in 1986. The labeling of this pole as "south" uses the definition currently endorsed by the International Astronomical Union, namely that the north pole of a planet or satellite is the pole that points above the invariable plane of the Solar System, regardless of the direction the planet is spinning.[53][54] A different convention is sometimes used, in which a body's north and south poles are defined according to the right-hand rule in relation to the direction of rotation.[55] In terms of this latter coordinate system it was Uranus's north pole that was in sunlight in 1986.
The phys.org article that the Washington Post links to does mention this, but only in passing. Now, perhaps they're confident that Uranus is so far from the Sun that it can't have seasons, but if that is why 'the interior' is being given as the cause, I think they ought say so explicitly.
Jamastiene
(38,187 posts)It never ceases to amaze me.
sibelian
(7,804 posts)El Supremo
(20,365 posts)Iggo
(47,558 posts)LostInAnomie
(14,428 posts)... like when I bend down to tie my shoes.
RandySF
(58,903 posts)Orsino
(37,428 posts)It is truly a gas giant.
Vattel
(9,289 posts)trackfan
(3,650 posts)MrMickeysMom
(20,453 posts)Hey, somebody had to say it!