Uranus at Opposition III

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10d ago 2:15

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The planet Uranus has always been an oddball. It lies on its side, so it rolls around the Sun like a giant bowling ball. Its magnetic field is tilted and offset more than any other planet’s.

And for the past four decades, it’s seemed that the planet radiated less energy into space than it receives from the Sun. The solar system’s other giant planets all radiate at least twice as much energy as they receive – mainly in the form of heat left over from their formation.

But two recent studies have changed that story – at least a little.

Most of the earlier estimates were based on observations by Voyager 2, which flew past the planet in 1986. But the new studies found that Voyager might have scanned Uranus at the wrong time. The Sun was especially active then, skewing the readings.

The studies combined decades of observations by telescopes on the ground and in space. Researchers then used computer models to analyze the results.

They found that Uranus emits up to 15 percent more energy than it gets from the Sun. But that’s still a lot less than the other giants. So Uranus is still an oddball – just not quite as odd as it seemed.

Uranus is at its best this week. It’s opposite the Sun, so it’s in view all night. It’s closest to us for the year as well, so it shines at its brightest. Even so, you need binoculars to see it. It’s in the east in early evening, to the lower right of the Pleiades star cluster.

Script by Damond Benningfield

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