Does Uranus have “ass-teroids” surrounding it? Probably not, but scientists now claim that clouds surrounding Uranus smell like fart and rotten eggs.
Uranus has fascinated astronomers for decades and, unfortunately, has also been the butt of jokes for many years (with regard to how its name is pronounced) and the latest discovery that the planet’s clouds smell like rotten eggs or, fart, serves to establish that ‘uranus jokes’ will continue for many more years to come.
According to a new study, there’s a lot of smelly stuff hanging around the planet. The study revealed that the clouds in the Uranus upper atmosphere contain mostly hydrogen sulfide, which contributes to Uranus’s stench.
Patrick Irwin, an author of the Oxford University in England explained that if a human were to ever come in contact with the Uranus clouds they would definitely be disgusted with the awful scent that the clouds give off.
“If an unfortunate human were ever to descend through Uranus’ clouds, they would be met with a very unpleasant scent and odiferous conditions,” Irwin explained
Several scientists have always thought that the clouds near the giant green planet’s surface contain hydrogen sulfide and ammonia, but it was always an assumption rather than a observation. However Irwin confirmed that visiting austronauts noticed a scent as they got closer to the planet’s atmosphere.
When the austronauts got deeper into Uranus’s atmosphere they measured more hydrogen sulfide than ammonia and the exact concentration of hydroden sulfide required, which produced a rotten-egg fart smell.
Irwin and his colleagues studied Uranus’ air by using a Near-Infrared Integral Field Spectrometer also known as (NIFS), which is a 26-foot Gemini North telescope in Hawaii. The telescope examined the sunlight that reflected from the atmosphere that was above Uranus’ clouds and noticed that there was a significant amount of hydrogen sulfide.
