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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?
(Score: 3, Informative) by aristarchus on Saturday November 21 2015, @05:58AM
If only you Europeans had stuck with the original spelling, you would not be subjected to all these inane attempts at humour. The name is Οὐρανός, the Sky, what's above. Of course, Οὐρανός mated with Γαῖα, and sired the Titans. But, since he was a MRA type of god (did I mention that Γαῖα was actually his mother?), he tried to control the whole sex thing by not allowing any of his children to be born, but kept them stuffed back inside their mother. Γαῖα conspired with her last born, Κρόνος, Kronos, to take out the old man. She hid him in a bush, and gave him a flint sickle, and said: "When the old man comes down tonight, cut him!" All this is allegory, of course, and has nothing to do with Scott Adams problems with women. Unless. . . . it does.
Κρόνος is called Saturn in Latin, so that is the other gas giant planet, the one no one ever makes jokes about, probably out of fear that if they did, he would cut them with his flint sickle. On the other hand, we are still getting actual science from the Voyager II mission? And people are cheap about funding space programs?
About the joke, and the methane: what did Uranus say? Pull my finger!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 21 2015, @06:25PM
Γῆ is the more usual form for Γαῖα. It's all you'd find in Attic prose.
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Saturday November 21 2015, @06:35PM
Yes, but I am not an Athenian! Please forgive my Ionian accent!
(Score: 2) by bzipitidoo on Saturday November 21 2015, @09:53PM
I've been saying the most obvious space exploration to put among the top priorities, if not the very top, is two orbiters, one for Uranus and one for Neptune. But, for whatever reason, we have Juno, which will be the second orbiter to study Jupiter, arriving in 2016, while plans for Uranus and Neptune are all many years out. For Uranus, the most likely plan currently is to launch an orbiter in 2025, to arrive in 2037. For Neptune, there was a 2005 proposal to launch an orbiter sometime this decade, but it was canceled. There is this proposed ODINUS program, to launch orbiters to both planets around 2034.
As to the jokes, do we have to rename the planet? Sol g? VII? Ouranos? Caelus? Georgium Sidus?? I guess time will eventually end them. How long have these jokes been made? Ever since Freud's works, with the "anal stage" became part of the popular consciousness?