cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/48332762
A new analysis of decades’ worth of observations has revealed that Uranus does indeed emit more heat than it receives from the rays of the Sun.
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/48332762
A new analysis of decades’ worth of observations has revealed that Uranus does indeed emit more heat than it receives from the rays of the Sun.
Chemical or nuclear?
I’m not at all sure about this, but isn’t there decent reason to believe that the gas giants have solid cores? I mean, earth generates plenty of heat in its core (largely from nuclear decay I believe), I don’t see why the same thing couldn’t be going on in Uranus?
My thoughts well summarised haha they are gas planets with significant mass. In astrophysics class I am sure they said gases heat up under gravity and stable fusion is obtained if enough heat/gravity/mass. They should still heat in the absence of fusion. I haven’t read the research but I assume that’s accounted for. So is the remaining heat chemical or nuclear? Maybe they have some heavy radioactive elements pumping out heat too? Or stored primordial heat being slowly released?
it’s not chemical, that much i can tell you. there was a study done in 1800 iirc where they contemplated what gives the sun its enormous power and they figured out that if the sun was a solid ball of coal burning slowly, it wouldn’t last longer than 200 years iirc, at the enormous rate of power it emits. it’s a nuclear process
these nuclear processes can be very long-running. uranium takes billions of years to decay. it’s probable that a lot of planets have uranium in their interior and that heats up the planet from the inside.
Uranus isn’t the sun though and the power output is many orders of magnitude lower