Uranus and Neptune were only chitchat once by human ballistic capsule when Voyager 2 passed by them almost 40 years ago . During those visit , scientists measured peculiar charismatic fields unlike those go out around other planets . Arecent papersuggests that the Uranus measurement might have been messed up by the Sun , but in general , it has been difficult to explicate the demeanour . New enquiry propose that the magnetic weirdness might be due to oceans below the atmosphere .
jumbo major planet tend to have gassy layers on the outside , fluid layers down below , and a upstanding core at their heart and soul . Burkhard Militzer from the University of California Berkeley has make a calculator role model to test and explicate the magnetic champaign . It suggests that below the atmosphere of the planets , there is pee , methane , and ammonia .
The pressures below the atm are high , create two trenchant layer : below , a bed of greasy hydrocarbons and ammonia , which have lost some hydrogen , and above , the water and hydrogen . The model hint that Uranus has a rough core the size of Mercury . This is surround by an 8,000 - kilometer ( 5,000 - Admiralty mile ) thick stratum rich in hydrocarbons . Above it sits a layer with the same thickness but made of water , and , to top it all off , an atmosphere 5,000 kilometers ( 3,000 nautical mile ) chummy .
Neptune is standardized in sizing to Uranus but not exactly a counterpart . It is more massive but smaller . The model suggests a thinner atmosphere and a large core ( roughly the sizing of Mars ) but two equally wooden-headed layers of water and hydrocarbons .
“ We now have , I would say , a good possibility why Uranus and Neptune have really different fields , and it ’s very different from Earth , Jupiter , and Saturn , ” Militzer say in astatement . “ We did n’t experience this before . It ’s like oil colour and weewee , except the oil goes below because atomic number 1 is lost . ”
The measurements from Voyager 2 indicate that the magnetized domain of Uranus and Neptune are disorganized , very different from the decent due north - south field we experiencehere on Earth . For Militzer , the reason is to be chance in the lack of convection in these two worlds . The hydrocarbon layer is stably stratified almost like a plastic polymer , accord to the model , so it does n’t allow convection .
“ If you require my colleagues , ‘ What do you think explains the champaign of Uranus and Neptune ? ’ they may say , ‘ Well , maybe it ’s this ball field pelting , but maybe it ’s this water property which we call superionic , ’ ” he said . “ From my perspective , this is not plausible . But if we have this interval into two separate layers , that should explicate it . ”
It will be interesting to see if this good example can consistently recreate the layer even with the new sixth sense from thereanalysis of Voyager 2 ’s magnetised data . A solar storm is believed to have induce Uranus to exhibit several unknown magnetic feature film that are not in reality present in its common state .
A paper hash out these results is published inProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences .
