Uranus smells like rotten eggs – and scientists say the pongy planet could unlock mysteries of the universe
According to scientists the seventh planet in our solar system is surrounded by hydrogen sulphide clouds under a layer of methane
IT'S been the butt of planetary jokes for decades - and now there's another reason to laugh at Uranus.
According to scientists the seventh planet in our solar system stinks of eggs.
Researchers at Oxford University discovered the ice giant is surrounded by hydrogen sulphide clouds under a layer of methane.
The chemical is the same which give rotten eggs their characteristic whiff.
Uranus, the seventh furthest from our sun, was first recognised as a planet in 1781, by the German-British astronomer William Herschel.
But the contents of its atmosphere are still largely unknown.
The only space probe to have been anywhere near it was Voyager 2, which whizzed past in 1986.
Telescopes back on Earth can't see much beyond 200 miles due to our atmosphere of hydrogen and helium.
Scientists previously argued Uranus was made up of ammonia, a compound of nitrogen and hydrogen.
But an international team of researchers confirmed the smelly truth.
A statement from the Gemini Observatory, a high-power telescope atop a Hawaiian volcano, read: "They found hydrogen sulfide, the odiferous gas that most people avoid, in Uranus's cloud tops."
The findings, published in the journal Nature Astronomy, come from an analysis of the near-infrared microwaves detected by a spectrometer.
Patrick Irwin, a physicist at the University of Oxford who led the new study, said: "If an unfortunate human were ever to descend through Uranus's clouds, they would be met with very unpleasant conditions."
MOST READ IN SCIENCE
But he added that the space explorer would die from "suffocation and exposure long before the smell".
Uranus orbits the sun from 1.85 billion miles away.
The discovery of hydrogen sulfide may help explain how the solar system formed 4.6 billion years ago.
We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online news team? Email us at [email protected] or call 0207 782 4368. You can WhatsApp us on 07810 791 502. We pay for videos too. Click here to upload yours.