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Confirmed: Uranus Really Is Hotter Than It Has Any Right to Be (www.sciencealert.com)

submitted 1 day ago by sundray@lemmus.org to c/nottheonion@lemmy.world

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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/48332762

A new analysis of decades' worth of observations has revealed that Uranus does indeed emit more heat than it receives from the rays of the Sun.

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[–] ryannathans@aussie.zone 13 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Chemical or nuclear?

[–] thebestaquaman@lemmy.world 8 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I'm not at all sure about this, but isn't there decent reason to believe that the gas giants have solid cores? I mean, earth generates plenty of heat in its core (largely from nuclear decay I believe), I don't see why the same thing couldn't be going on in Uranus?

[–] ryannathans@aussie.zone 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

My thoughts well summarised haha they are gas planets with significant mass. In astrophysics class I am sure they said gases heat up under gravity and stable fusion is obtained if enough heat/gravity/mass. They should still heat in the absence of fusion. I haven't read the research but I assume that's accounted for. So is the remaining heat chemical or nuclear? Maybe they have some heavy radioactive elements pumping out heat too? Or stored primordial heat being slowly released?

[–] gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

it's not chemical, that much i can tell you. there was a study done in 1800 iirc where they contemplated what gives the sun its enormous power and they figured out that if the sun was a solid ball of coal burning slowly, it wouldn't last longer than 200 years iirc, at the enormous rate of power it emits. it's a nuclear process

these nuclear processes can be very long-running. uranium takes billions of years to decay. it's probable that a lot of planets have uranium in their interior and that heats up the planet from the inside.

[–] ryannathans@aussie.zone 1 points 1 day ago

Uranus isn't the sun though and the power output is many orders of magnitude lower