Scientists Discover That Uranus Smells Like Rotten Eggs (space.com)

An anonymous reader writes: According to a study published in Nature Astronomy, scientists have determined that the atmosphere of Uranus smells like rotten eggs. The smell of Uranus was determined by the use of an Near-Infrared Integral Field Spectrometer (NIFS), an instrument that allows scientists to determine what an atmosphere is composed of based upon the reflections of sunlight that bounce off of it. Specifically, the clouds in Uranus' upper atmosphere consist of hydrogen sulfide, the molecule that makes rotten eggs so stinky. "If an unfortunate human were ever to descend through Uranus' clouds, they would be met with very unpleasant and odiferous conditions," study lead author Patrick Irwin, of Oxford University in England, said in a statement. But that wayward pioneer would have bigger problems, he added: "Suffocation and exposure in the negative 200 degrees Celsius [minus 328 degrees Fahrenheit] atmosphere, made of mostly hydrogen, helium, and methane, would take its toll long before the smell."

Comments

Oh my

[war4peace]

The amount of jokes stemming from this article is endless.
Still, cool science, quite literally.

Obligatory Futurama clip

[Anonymous Coward]

Astronomers renamed Uranus in 2620 to end that stupid joke once and for all.

NIFS?

[Anonymous Coward]

Why didn't they make the acronym SNIF?

Re:Let the puns commence!

[Anonymous Coward]

This article contains quite the impressive opening!

There's still gaps in our knowledge, but hopefully the scientists can get to the bottom of it. I hope they're not tooting their own horn prematurely, that would be shitty because they'd just make asses of themselves and be the butt of jokes.

No it smells of nothing

[thegarbz]

If the H2S concentration is high enough to mask some of the composition on the underlying layers it would most certainly paralise your sense of smell instantly, something that happens as low as 100ppm concentrations.

Uranus smells of nothing. Which frankly is far more plesant than most jokes would suggest.

Re:No it smells of nothing

[NichardRixon]

It's odd that the Oxford scholars didn't mention the toxicity of hydrogen sulfide, but mention suffocation from inhalation of methane and the effects of low temperatures. Although the odor can be detected at very minute concentrations, (around 0.000047 ppm) it's about as poisonous as cyanide at about 360 ppm. Suppression of the sense of smell doesn't happen instantaneously, and many deaths have occurred because victims who noticed the odor thought the gas had dissipated when they could no longer smell it.

Re:No it smells of nothing

[Known Nutter]

Came to say this. H2S at around 100 ppm can/will deaden the sense of smell. Usually, the lack of instantaneous loss of olfactory functions can be attributed to the gradual increase in concentration of H2S in a given area during an incident.

But I guess saying Uranus smells like a bag of farts is more entertaining than actual science.

Re:No it smells of nothing

[NichardRixon]

"But I guess saying Uranus smells like a bag of farts is more entertaining than actual science."

Agreed. I smell fake news.

Hmm

[SCVonSteroids]

Depends what I ate.

Re:Black holes

[Chris Mattern]

Calling it "urinous" has its own problems, though.

Re:Black holes

[thomst]

Patrick Moore used to avoid this problem by pronouncing it your-uh-nuss, with the stress on the first syllable.

The original pronunciation of the name of the planet's eponymous Greek god almost undoubtedly was "oo-ran-os" (with the stress on the initial syllable), rather than "your-uh-nuss." The latter pronunciation is an artifact of British public school conventions, not authentic, classical Greek ones. (The Brits tend to Romanize both the English spelling and pronunciation of Greek words in general, and names in particular ... )

Re: Who submitted this?

[bill_mcgonigle]

Look at all the /.'ers acting like fifth-graders and giving the site their ad impressions. The audience has made the site into what it's become.