THE GIST
·
Uranus
looks boring but it actually doesn’t. Reports are
claiming that a bright spot has appeared in its atmosphere. Amateur astronomers are asked to help with
the investigation as it may result in Hubble taking a closer look.
Uranus
looks boring but it actually doesn’t. Reports are
claiming that a bright spot has appeared in its atmosphere. Amateur astronomers are asked to help with
the investigation as it may result in Hubble taking a closer look.
Uranus like the other planets in our solar
system is made up completely of gas, though it differs in composition from Jupiter and Saturn; and it has
higher amounts of water, methane and ice of ammonia. Unlike
conventional ice, it’s a super dense liquid and like Neptune it is also called
as ‘Ice Giant’. Uranus has the diameter of four times than that of the
Earth and revolves round the Sun maintaining a distance of 2.9 billion
kilometers which is 20 times than the Earth-Sun’s distance. From that distance
human eyes may see only a little of it, but a telescope is needed to study
further details.
Clouds in Uranus's atmosphere
Planetary scientist Sromovsky with the help of Gemini 8.1 meter telescope has taken a picture showing an bright patch which is thought to be an eruption of methane ice in the atmosphere.
Heidi B. Hammel, leading planetary scientist used her Facebook page to announce this discovery and appeal for further observations. With the help of advanced equipments Amateur scientists are being asked to study this planet and if enough confirmations are received, the controllers of the Hubble telescope will be asked to pause the observations and take a closer look.
“The clouds on Uranus seem to be seasonally driven and this is the reason why we care about them” said Hammel. "Uranus spins tipped over its side giving extreme changes to sunlight as its season changes", he added.
“These changes are more dramatic than other planets.Thus Uranus gives an unique insight of the energy balance in a planetary atmosphere.”
It is like a weather system on asteroids , with the northern hemisphere getting 42 yrs of sunlight and energy from the Sun and the southern hemisphere meanwhile receives 42 years of darkness.
Unfortunately, this new outburst may be just out of reach of most amateur astronomers but those with more advanced equipment should certainly take a look.
It seems strange that 230 yrs since Herschel discovered this planet himself being a amateur astronomer, it may be the work of modern day scientists that would unlock the clues about the nature of Uranus’s strange atmospheric effects.
(source:Discovery News)
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