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8 votes
2 answers
275 views

Could there be liquid water on Uranus? Are there any indications that there might be?

Like most planets, Uranus has a very cold outer atmosphere and a very hot core. What we see is a very thick primary atmosphere with plenty of hydrogen. Deeper in, we might suppose that water ...
Mike Serfas's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
71 views

Qualities of gas giant atmospheres at a density of 1 gram per cubic centimeter

At what depth in the atmospheres of the gas giants does the density of their atmospheres equal 1 gram per cubic centimeter? What is the pressure and temperature at these depths? Are the radiations ...
user141802's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
67 views

What is the difference between aurorae and electroglow?

One of the discoveries of Voyager 2 at Uranus was a phenomenon called "electroglow", which as I understand it is related to charged particles interacting with the atmosphere that cause the ...
user avatar
5 votes
1 answer
362 views

Aren't there any rock or similar firm material on/in the gas giant planets?

Aren't there any rock or similar firm material on/in the gas giant planets? What happens if a rock asteroid hits one of these planets? Shouldn't the rock accumulate in the center of the planet due to ...
d-b's user avatar
  • 349
10 votes
1 answer
3k views

Why do Uranus and Neptune have more methane than Jupiter and Saturn?

So the standard theory of the solar nebula is that in the region of the gas planets, ice and rock could condense to form planetesimals, which could then accrete hydrogen and helium to form the gas ...
cduston's user avatar
  • 255
3 votes
1 answer
2k views

Would a spacecraft just go "through" a gas giant?

From my understanding of the word gas giant, it is a planet composed of entirely a gaseous atmosphere, and so planets Jupiter and onwards fall in this category. That being said, what would stop a ...
K Split X's user avatar
  • 1,069
6 votes
2 answers
6k views

Why are gas giants colored the way they are?

As I understand it, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune are all made primarily from varying proportions of hydrogen and helium. Despite this, Jupiter is very red, Saturn is yellow, and Uranus and ...
NeutronStar's user avatar
  • 2,673