Uranus Stinks Like Rotten Eggs, Scientists Say

Uranus smells as bad as it sounds in a common mispronunciation of the seventh planet from the sun and the third largest in our solar system, according to scientists who have discovered it is swimming in hydrogen sulfide, the gas that gives rotten eggs their unpleasant odor.

Properly pronounced “YOOR-a-nus,” the planet’s smell would be off-putting “if an unfortunate human were ever to descend through Uranus’s clouds,” Patrick Irwin, the lead author of a study published in Nature Astronomy, said in a statement.

“They would be met with very unpleasant and odiferous conditions,” according to Irwin, a professor at the University of Oxford..

But the stench is the least of the problems humans would encounter on Uranus.

“Suffocation and exposure in the negative 200 degrees Celsius atmosphere made of mostly hydrogen, helium, and methane would take its toll long before the smell,” Irwin said.

Irwin and his United Kingdom and global collaborators looked at Uranus through an 26-foot Gemini North telescope at the Gemini Observatory in Hawaii and were able to see the noxious gas swirling above the planet’s clouds. What they saw shed light on a stubborn, long-standing mystery about whether the main component of the clouds was hydrogen sulphide or ammonia.

“We were able to detect the ‘fingerprint’ of [hydrogen sulphide] in the light reflected from Uranus’s clouds,” Irwin said. “From the strength of the fingerprint, we were able to figure out how much [hydrogen sulphide] is present at the cloud tops.”

So, why is this important?

For one thing, it demonstrates the power of the Gemini North telescope, according to Leigh Fletcher, a planetary scientist at the University of Leicester in the United Kingdom.

“The superior capabilities of Gemini finally gave us that lucky break,” Fletcher said in the release.

But beyond that, the discovery helps scientists understand how planets in the solar system formed. The information is “invaluable in understanding Uranus’ birthplace, evolution and refining models of planetary migrations,” the release said.

The findings also indicate that while the atmosphere of Uranus would be unpleasant for humans, the far-flung world is fertile ground for investigating the early history of the Earth’s solar system and perhaps understanding the physical conditions on other large, icy worlds orbiting the stars beyond our sun.

Photo via NASA