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.

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: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 ... )