Infrared Aurora on Uranus

[Graeme1858]

The presence of an infrared aurora on the cold, outer planet of Uranus has been confirmed for the first time by University of Leicester astronomers.

https://le.ac.uk/news/2023/october/uranus-aurora

Graeme

[hosshead]

you post some of the COOLEST stuff!

[StarHugger]

Thats an awesome pic too...

Thanks!

[SparWeb]

The aurora are interesting on their own - the connection to life on other planets is a quite a stretch.
Uranus is still the coldest of all of the solar-system planets.
Under the cloud deck it's still only 100K.
If you're looking for a warm climate on Uranus, you'll find it at 300 atmospheres pressure. There are no aurora down in the bowels of Uranus.

Life doesn't just need heat, it needs energy. Two different things. The solar radiation flux at Uranus is 0.3% of the energy Earth receives. When you read things like "the core of Uranus produces more heat than it receives from the sun" that's because it's producing a paltry amount of heat compared to an even more paltry irradiance. Then this third heat source, aurora, can have a comparable effect on the energy situation.

Certainly, if you bring a planet like Uranus closer to the Sun (which must be what they're thinking about in terms of exoplanets) then it's not aurora that provide the source of heat - it's the star. By many orders of magnitude.

{PS. this post was written purely for the sake of making that pun. I'm not normally so pedantic, I promise.}

[Michael131313]

Thanks for the post. Interesting, geomagnetic reversal everyday. Amazing.

[Lady Fraktor]

I think (dangerous I know) that the only planets they have not confirmed aurora on are Mercury, Venus and Pluto?