Yahoo News Uranus actually stinks like eggy farts, scientists finally admit
It’s the headline that every giggling school child has wanted to read – scientists have finally conceded that Uranus absolutely stinks.
Better still, it actually does smell like an eggy fart – thanks to hydrogen sulfide gas, the same chemical which makes human wind smell unpleasant.
That’s according to a group of very serious researchers at the University of Oxford’s Department of Physics, led by Professor Patrick Irwin from the University of Oxford.
Professor Urwin said, ‘If an unfortunate human were ever to descend through Uranus’ clouds, they would be met with very unpleasant and odiferous conditions.’
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Professor Irwin and his team examined the infrared light from Uranus captured by the eight-meter Gemini North telescope on Hawaii’s Maunakea.
Astronomers have long debated the composition of Uranus’s clouds and whether hydrogen sulfide or ammonia dominates.
Professor Irwin said: ‘Now, thanks to improved hydrogen sulfide absorption-line data and the wonderful Gemini spectra, we have the fingerprint which caught the culprit.’
The detection of hydrogen sulfide high in Uranus’s cloud deck (and presumably Neptune’s) contrasts sharply with the inner gas giant planets, Jupiter and Saturn, where no hydrogen sulfide is seen above the clouds, but instead ammonia is observed.
These differences in atmospheric composition shed light on questions about the planets’ formation and history.
