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: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 21 2015, @02:57AM
I just don't know which Uranus joke it is.
(Score: 0, Offtopic) by rev_irreverence on Saturday November 21 2015, @03:01AM
I think a hidden link to goatse.cx would be appropriate in this case.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 21 2015, @03:16AM
Nope . [blogspot.com]
(Score: 1, Offtopic) by cmn32480 on Saturday November 21 2015, @03:07AM
They all write themselves! Give it a go!
"It's a dog eat dog world, and I'm wearing Milkbone underwear" - Norm Peterson
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 21 2015, @03:18AM
NASA should send a dog into space. A dog would be natural for checking out Uranus.
(Score: 2) by BK on Saturday November 21 2015, @03:48AM
I seem to recall that there's a lot of methane in around Uranus. Could that be part of the joke?
...but you HAVE heard of me.
(Score: 2, Funny) by snufu on Saturday November 21 2015, @04:55AM
"All jokes aside..."
Butt what about those of us who only came here for the jokes?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 21 2015, @04:21PM
Yo mama is the butt of this joke.
(Score: 2) by linkdude64 on Saturday November 21 2015, @08:07AM
The secret has been within Uranus this entire time!
(Score: 1, Offtopic) by mhajicek on Saturday November 21 2015, @02:57AM
That's where I hid my secret base... Don't look there.
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 21 2015, @04:43AM
There is only one way to find out if Uranus was full of surprises.
Honestly,taking Uranus was great,
it made my whole day.
But it made Uranus's hole weak.
(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?
(Score: 3, Funny) by Gravis on Saturday November 21 2015, @08:41AM
the washingtonpost.com website inserts links to relevant stories.
so what is relevant to "Uranus might be full of surprises"?
the joke is so omnipresent that even machines are confused by it. ;)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 21 2015, @07:20PM
It's like that google image recognition neural network thingy.
The word Uranus have shitty poop jokes attached to them and dumbbells have arms attached to them.
Skynet will have a very weird view of our world, and we will die laughing.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Covalent on Saturday November 21 2015, @02:57PM
Uranus rotates at a bizzare angle, presumably because it was hit by something large. Perhaps that impact left the solid part of the planet in an irregular shape, which in turn moves the atmosphere at different rates. Might also be that the solid portion is fragmented or even volcanic.
You can't rationally argue somebody out of a position they didn't rationally get into.