What you know about Uranus and Neptune may be wrong, reveals a new study
Photo Credit: NASA Uranus and Neptune, long thought to be water-rich planets, may have a significant amount of methane ice, according to a recent study.
Photo Credit: NASA The study's findings could reshape our understanding of the formation and composition of the ice giants Uranus and Neptune.
Photo Credit: NASA Voyager 2's flyby in the 1980s provided our only direct data on Uranus and Neptune, leaving much about them unknown.
Photo Credit: NASA Scientists have traditionally believed Uranus and Neptune to be composed of hydrogen, helium, and superionic water and ammonia layers.
Photo Credit: NASA New models by researchers suggest that the icy giants may have accreted planetesimals rich in carbon, like today's comets from the Kuiper Belt.
Photo Credit: NASA The study's lead author, Uri Malamud, utilised advanced algorithms to create hundreds of thousands of interior models for Uranus and Neptune.
Photo Credit: NASA Methane, either solid or mushy, could form a thick layer between the hydrogen-helium envelope and the water layer in the planets.
Photo Credit: NASA NASA and other space agencies are considering missions to explore Uranus, aiming to verify the methane-rich hypothesis and gain further insights into the mysterious ice giants.
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