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Hubble Discovers Dark Spot on Uranus

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the matches-dark-spot-on-my-soul dept.

TheDawgLives writes "Just as we near the end of the hurricane season in the Atlantic Ocean, winds whirl and clouds churn 2 billion miles away in the atmosphere of Uranus, forming a dark vortex large enough to engulf two-thirds of the United States."

20 of 330 comments (clear)

  1. Dark Spot on Uranus? by Kimos · · Score: 5, Funny

    Must... resist... bad... jokes...

    1. Re:Dark Spot on Uranus? by Lazerf4rt · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I challenge anybody to post a +5 Insightful comment about this story. It can't be done!

    2. Re:Dark Spot on Uranus? by strider44 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Don't worry, your post will get there. I admit I burst out laughing as soon as I read the headline but if you want something mildly insightful I might as well fill in something while I have the time.

      Is it any surprise that there's a dark spot on Uranus? Jupiter has a couple of huge cyclones raging on in there, so does Saturn. Both the planet's black spots are bigger than Uranus' anyway. Uranus is a gas giant, since there's going to be some wind going on there I'm not exactly shocked that huge cyclones have formed.

      Enormous cyclones I think are just a side-effect of gas giants. I don't think it's anything to get excited about.

    3. Re:Dark Spot on Uranus? by Directrix1 · · Score: 4, Funny

      "forming a dark vortex large enough to engulf two-thirds of the United States" ... tub girl ... 'nuff said. Now on to the insightful posts...

      --
      Occam's razor is the blind faith in the natural selection of least resistance and in universal oversimplification. -- EF
    4. Re:Dark Spot on Uranus? by Hoi+Polloi · · Score: 4, Insightful

      It is impressive that even with the feeble solar energy it receives there is still enough to power massive cyclones.

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      It is by the juice of the coffee bean that thoughts acquire speed, the teeth acquire stains. The stains become a warning
    5. Re:Dark Spot on Uranus? by draxredd · · Score: 5, Funny

      are you implying that the sun don't shine on Uranus ?

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      --- Back to the trees, back to the trees !
    6. Re:Dark Spot on Uranus? by linuxguy1454 · · Score: 5, Informative

      OK, time to salvage this from all the jokes.

      From the image, it looks like the spot could be 19.5 degrees north of the equator. Years ago, I read a paper by Richard C. Hoagland, author of The Monuments of Mars: A City on the Edge of Forever (1987). Although a lot of his paper seemed like wild speculation to me, I remember one "message" he deduced from the so-called area near the "face on Mars." There is a characteristic of planetary dynamics which produces an anomoly at 19.5 degrees north or south lattitude, depending on the magnetic pole of the planet. This is related to the rotating molten core of the planet.

      Jupiter's famous red spot is a 19.5 deg. south lattitude. Hoagland predicted a spot on Neptune at 19.5 degrees lattitude before the Voyager discovered it. On earth, Hawaii's Mona Loa volcano, the world's largest and continuously active volcano, is at 19.5 deg. north lattitude. (The Hawaiian islands were all made by passing over the spot where Mona Loa is now.) Olympus Mons, the largest volcano in the solar system, is at 19.5 deg lattitude. The "face on Mars" is 1/3 of the way around from Olympus Mons, at 19.5 deg. lattitude.

      So the spot on Uranus (not on mine!) has nothing to do with solar energy. It is an artifact of planetary dynamics.

      As an additional note- if you place a tetrahedron (a triangular pyramid) inside a shpere so that it's tip touches the north pole and it's 3 base points touch the insides of the sphere, they touch at 19.5 degrees south lattitude.

  2. any way to forecast this? by jeffs72 · · Score: 5, Funny
    "forming a dark vortex large enough to engulf two-thirds of the United States."

    I'd like to know when this will happen so I can move to, say, Canada.

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  3. In Related News.... by w3weasel · · Score: 4, Funny

    Due to the decades of jokes involving the name of this planet, and in light of the fact that a change in pronunciation during the 80's did nothing to curb the lowbrow humor, the same panel of scientists who removed Pluto from our solar system, have deciced to rename Uranus. Henceforth, this planet shall be referred to as Urectum.

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    Just as irrigation is the lifeblood of the Southwest, lifeblood is the soup of cannibals. -- Jack Handy

    1. Re:In Related News.... by Bob+Cat+-+NYMPHS · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Isaac Asimov pointed out that the pronunciation 'urinous' is not really an improvemnet.

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      The latest Slashdot meme.
  4. Found a what on the what now? by 0xdeadbeef · · Score: 5, Funny

    Farnsworth: I'm sorry, Fry, but astronomers renamed Uranus in 2620 to end that stupid joke once and for all.

    Fry: Oh. What's it called now?

    Farnsworth: Urrectum. Here, let me locate it for you.

  5. Please lay off the Uranus jokes by theskipper · · Score: 5, Funny

    It just makes you look desperate for a +5 funny.

    The poor planet has been the butt of far too many attempts at humor.

    1. Re:Please lay off the Uranus jokes by Stupidfat · · Score: 5, Funny

      Hopefully we can get past all this and everything will come out alright in the end.

    2. Re:Please lay off the Uranus jokes by Hoi+Polloi · · Score: 4, Funny

      Someday we'll wipe away all of these blemishes on Uranus.

      --
      It is by the juice of the coffee bean that thoughts acquire speed, the teeth acquire stains. The stains become a warning
  6. Re:Terrorists! by voice_of_all_reason · · Score: 4, Funny

    Protip: If the terr'ists learn how to cast "dark vortex" and "magic missile," they win. Hands down.

  7. in other news.. by mottie · · Score: 4, Funny

    One camp of scientists believe the dark spot is raised in elevation and are thus vying to name it "the turtlehead" whereas another group believes that it is actually a hole, and is fighting to name the spot "puckered starfish". More to follow.

  8. Uranus is a gas giant... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    and it has a dark spot... I wish I could say I am mature enough not to laugh, but I'm not.

  9. Re:Hurricane season by ronanbear · · Score: 4, Funny

    The pirates are working, praise be to his noodly appendage!

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    the more they over-think the plumbing the easier it is to stop up the pipe
  10. Can't... resist... by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 4, Funny

    Isn't the Hubble supposed to be pointing away from Earth?

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    #DeleteChrome
  11. Um, no... by spun · · Score: 4, Funny

    No, no, no. I am not going to look up Uranus to see if it is full of methane gas. I'm not falling for that one again.

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    - None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton