Unexpected storms spotted on Uranus
DOI: 10.1063/PT.5.028428
Los Angeles Times : Astronomers believe that Uranus does not have a warm core and that heating from the Sun drives the formation of the planet’s storms. Therefore, storm activity on the planet should peak during equinoxes. But recent observations have revealed a spate of storms at a rate much higher than during the most recent equinox, seven years ago. In August, Imke de Pater of the University of California, Berkeley, and her colleagues, with the help of amateur astronomers and time on the Hubble Space Telescope, spotted eight storms at various altitudes. One of those storms was the brightest ever at the 2.2-µm wavelength. That height puts the storm just below Uranus’s tropopause . The researchers are uncertain what could have been driving the storms, but they know that whatever the cause, it will require revising theories about Uranus.
