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posted by cmn32480 on Saturday November 21 2015, @02:56AM   Printer-friendly
from the don't-ass-ume-anything dept.

From The Washington Post :

Scientists used to think that things were pretty chill over in the south hemisphere of Uranus. In fact, they thought it was one of the calmest regions of any of the gas giants. But in analyzing images taken nearly three decades ago by NASA's Voyager-2 spacecraft, researchers think they've found a kerfuffle of activity — which might indicate that there's something unusual about the planet's interior.

...

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.

All jokes aside, what is it that could be causing this unusual behavior?


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  • (Score: 2, Funny) by snufu on Saturday November 21 2015, @04:55AM

    by snufu (5855) on Saturday November 21 2015, @04:55AM (#266087)

    "All jokes aside..."

    Butt what about those of us who only came here for the jokes?

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 21 2015, @04:21PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 21 2015, @04:21PM (#266221)

    Yo mama is the butt of this joke.