{"id":17227,"date":"2024-11-25T19:00:06","date_gmt":"2024-11-25T20:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=17227"},"modified":"2024-11-25T20:23:34","modified_gmt":"2024-11-25T20:23:34","slug":"uranus-and-neptune-may-conceal-vast-oceans-of-water","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=17227","title":{"rendered":"Uranus and Neptune May Conceal Vast Oceans of Water"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A scientist simulated the contents of the ice giant worlds, and found that a fluid layer may explain each planet\u2019s strange magnetic field.<\/p>\n

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We might finally understand what\u2019s going on inside Uranus and Neptune, and the answer is pretty surprising: They may each contain an ocean of water.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe didn\u2019t really know anything before,\u201d about their interiors, said Adam Masters, a space and planetary scientist at Imperial College London. \u201cSo this hypothesis is very compelling.\u201d<\/p>\n

The idea about the two ice giant planets \u2014 so-called because of the freezing conditions in which they formed \u2014 was put forward by Burkhard Militzer, a planetary scientist from the University of California, Berkeley, and was published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences<\/a>. It could explain the strange magnetic fields of both worlds, which are unlike any other in the solar system.<\/p>\n

Earth\u2019s magnetic field is generated in its core, producing a clear north and south pole known as a dipole that roughly aligns with the axis of the planet. \u201cIt\u2019s like there\u2019s a big, giant bar magnet inside the planet,\u201d said Heidi Hammel, an astronomer and planetary scientist at the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy. \u201cThat\u2019s true for Jupiter, Saturn, Earth and some of the moons of Jupiter as well.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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When NASA\u2019s Voyager 2 spacecraft flew past Uranus in 1986<\/a>, however, it discovered something unusual. \u201cThe magnetic field was hugely tilted and offset from the center of the planet,\u201d Dr. Hammel said. At first, scientists thought the disordered field could be explained by a suspected giant impact early in Uranus\u2019s life, which had knocked the planet on its side. But then the spacecraft flew past Neptune three years later and \u201cits magnetic field was also significantly tilted,\u201d Dr. Hammel said.<\/p>\n

Dr. Militzer\u2019s proposal aims to settle this debate. It is based on simulating the motion of 500 atoms to model the interiors of the two ice giants, and it suggests there is a layer of water about 5,000 miles thick inside the two planets sitting beneath their outer atmospheres.<\/p>\n

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A scientist simulated the contents of the ice giant worlds, and found that a fluid layer may explain each planet\u2019s strange magnetic field.We might finally understand what\u2019s going on inside Uranus and Neptune, and the answer is pretty surprising: They may each contain an ocean of water.\u201cWe didn\u2019t really know anything before,\u201d about their interiors, said Adam Masters, a space and planetary scientist at Imperial College London. \u201cSo this hypothesis is very compelling.\u201dThe idea about the two ice giant planets \u2014 so-called because of the freezing conditions in which they formed \u2014 was put forward by Burkhard Militzer, a planetary scientist from the University of California, Berkeley, and was published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. It could explain the strange magnetic fields of both worlds, which are unlike any other in the solar system.Earth\u2019s magnetic field is generated in its core, producing a clear north and south pole known as a dipole that roughly aligns with the axis of the planet. \u201cIt\u2019s like there\u2019s a big, giant bar magnet inside the planet,\u201d said Heidi Hammel, an astronomer and planetary scientist at the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy. \u201cThat\u2019s true for Jupiter, Saturn, Earth and some of the moons of Jupiter as well.\u201dWhen NASA\u2019s Voyager 2 spacecraft flew past Uranus in 1986, however, it discovered something unusual. \u201cThe magnetic field was hugely tilted and offset from the center of the planet,\u201d Dr. Hammel said. At first, scientists thought the disordered field could be explained by a suspected giant impact early in Uranus\u2019s life, which had knocked the planet on its side. But then the spacecraft flew past Neptune three years later and \u201cits magnetic field was also significantly tilted,\u201d Dr. Hammel said.Dr. Militzer\u2019s proposal aims to settle this debate. It is based on simulating the motion of 500 atoms to model the interiors of the two ice giants, and it suggests there is a layer of water about 5,000 miles thick inside the two planets sitting beneath their outer atmospheres.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0log into\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0subscribe\u00a0for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber?\u00a0Log in.Want all of The Times?\u00a0Subscribe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17229,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17227","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17227","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17227"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17227\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17230,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17227\/revisions\/17230"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/17229"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17227"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17227"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17227"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}