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The Most Detailed Images of Uranus' Atmosphere Ever

Posted by Unknown on from the home-of-the-frost-giants dept.

New submitter monkeyhybrid writes "The Planetary Society's Emily Lakdawalla reports on the most detailed images of Uranus ever taken. The infrared sensitivity of the ground based Keck II telescope's NIRC2 instrument enabled astronomers to see below the high level methane based atmosphere that has hampered previous observations, and with unprecedented clarity. If you ever thought Uranus was a dull blue looking sphere then look again; you could easily mistake these images for being of Jupiter!"

10 of 105 comments (clear)

  1. Must... Resist... by Ashenkase · · Score: 5, Funny

    Forthcoming... Joke...

    1. Re:Must... Resist... by fsck1nhippies · · Score: 4, Funny

      The methane in the atmosphere is causing swassal warming!

    2. Re:Must... Resist... by PlusFiveTroll · · Score: 4, Funny

      "Hey doc... I can smell Uranus!"
      "Oh, I'm sorry Fry, scientists renamed Uranus years ago to rid the earth of that stupid joke once and for all. Now it's called Urectum!"

    3. Re:Must... Resist... by JustOK · · Score: 2, Funny

      Urectum? Dammed near killed him.

      --
      rewriting history since 2109
    4. Re:Must... Resist... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Funny

      What an asshole.

  2. Ha ha ha... by tnyquist83 · · Score: 4, Funny

    I can't lie, as soon as I saw the headline "Most detailed image of Uranus..." on my FB feed, I began chuckling to myself. I know, I'm a child.

  3. fair warning. by Kaenneth · · Score: 4, Funny

    If you click any links in the comments for this article, you deserve it.

  4. Holy shit.. by wbr1 · · Score: 4, Funny

    I love astronomy, but I literally read this on my phone whilst sitting on the toilet. I know the jokes are going to run rampant, so can we perhaps start an intelligent conversation about the utility and practicality of probing or mining the heavier elements below Uranus's hazy methane cloud? Oh wait...damn.

    --
    Silence is a state of mime.
  5. Re:#insert "YourAnusJoke.h" by dmbasso · · Score: 5, Funny

    It's quite clear you're used to inserting in YourAnus.h, but I believe you really meant to #include it.

    --
    `echo $[0x853204FA81]|tr 0-9 ionbsdeaml`@gmail.com
  6. Showing my age... by snspdaarf · · Score: 3, Funny

    Those dirty rings. You've tried soaking, scrubbing, and you still end up with (singing) Ring Around Uranus!

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    Why, without your clothes, you're naked, Miss Dudley!