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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Methane gas drives superstorms on Uranus and Neptune. Scientists have
discovered that the cause of the superstorms on Uranus and
Neptune is methane gas. Uranus and Neptune, the outermost planets
in the Solar System, are referred to as ice giants
due to their water rich composition. Scientists know relatively little

(00:23):
about these distant planets. However, after the Voyager two spacecraft
flew by them in the nineteen eighties, researchers observed that
both planets occasionally experience massive, short lived storms. These intense
but fleeting storms occur only once every few years and

(00:44):
are so large that they can be seen from Earth
through telescopes. Researchers have long wondered why storms on these
planets are so unpredictable. A team of astronomers has found
that methane may be the key to control these storms.
The findings were published on the Arquakshiv database on September third.

(01:06):
Storms form when heat rises from a planet's interior to
its surface, where the hot gases begin to cool down,
creating turbulence and triggering storm formation. However, while the interior
of these planets is warm, their outer atmosphere is cold,
so why don't storms occur all the time? The study

(01:29):
reveals that methane is the third most common molecule after
hydrogen and helium in the deep atmospheres of both planets. Typically,
methane gas doesn't play a significant role other than drifting
through the atmosphere, but the researchers used a three D
cloud resolving model to simulate convection. According to their simulations,

(01:53):
the typical velocity of dry convection in the deep atmosphere
is quite low, about one meter per second, but it's
sufficient to transport methane upwards, while moist convection at the
methane condensation level is heavily suppressed. Methane generally exists as
a gas, but in the upper regions of these icy

(02:14):
world's atmospheres, it can condense, forming droplets that fall to
lower altitudes. The researchers suggest there the methane warms up
and rises again, completing a cycle similar to Earth's water cycle.
When the atmosphere becomes oversaturated with methane, a stable layer forms,

(02:36):
like a wet blanket. This stable layer prevents heat from
reaching the surface, thus stopping storms from forming. These layers
are commonly found across all latitudes on Neptune and around
the equator and mid latitudes of Uranus. However, Uranus's poles
don't have enough methane to form a stable saturated layer,

(03:00):
allowing heat to easily rise to the surface and produce
larger storms, the study explains. On the other hand, Neptune
has more methane, and research is found that occasionally methane
can break through the stable layer and spread throughout the atmosphere.
This allows heat to circulate, enabling storms to form before

(03:24):
the atmosphere stabilizes once again. On ice giant planets, weak
dry convection and strongly suppressed moist convection are the norms. However,
when enough methane is transported upwards via dry convection and
turbulent diffusion, rare moist convective storms can form. These storms

(03:46):
are expected to occur more frequently on Neptune than on
Urinous due to Neptune's higher internal heat flow, the researchers concluded.
The studies authors suggest that further research is needed to
fully understand how different factors in the atmospheres of these
ice giants interact with one another.