Quite recently, Uranus has been puzzling scientists with is changing weather. Usually a calm one, since the beginning of August 2014 the planet seems to have woken up from its long slumber with intense storms now being observed in the normally placid icy giant.
This type of activity would have been expected in 2007, when Uranus’s once-every-42-year equinox occurred and the sun shined directly on the equator. But we predicted that such activity would have died down by now. Why we see these incredible storms now is beyond anybody’s guess.
Heidi hammel
When Uranus reached its closest solar point in its 42-year orbital cycle 7 years ago it would be close enough to the sun to explain these storms, but they are happening now, seven years later and this is what is intriguing scientists all over the world.
When it was first spotted in August, it was by a team at Hawaii’s W.M. Keck Observatory, and their study leader, called Imke de Pater, a professor and chair of astronomy at the University of California in Berkeley, says “The weather on uranus is incredibly active”. After Keck, in October, the Hubble Space telescope was ordered to investigate what they saw and the results showed that the storm on Uranus’ uppermost cloud layer, which is made of methan-ice.
Another co-author to the study, Heidi hammel, of the association of Universities for research in Astronomy says: “This type of activity would have been expected in 2007, when Uranus’s once-every-42-year equinox occurred and the sun shined directly on the equator. But we predicted that such activity would have died down by now. Why we see these incredible storms now is beyond anybody’s guess.”
The amateur astronomers were also thrilled to see great activity in Uranus. By now, getting something from Mars, Jupiter or even Saturn has become routine, but these new details on Uranus and Neptune are a new frontier for them, and for all of us. The Toulouse auto-parts supplier says of this amateur excitement: “I was so happy to confirm myself these first amateur images on this bright storm on Uranus, feeling I was living a very special moment for planetary amateur astronomy.”
This archive content was originally published November 16, 2014 (www.betawired.com)