The detection of the gas surrounding Uranus was made using the 8-meter Gemini North telescope on Hawaii’s Mauna Kea (Source: Wikimedia Commons) The detection of the gas surrounding Uranus was made using the 8-meter Gemini North telescope on Hawaii’s Mauna Kea (Source: Wikimedia Commons)

In a study published on Monday, scientists revealed that the atmosphere around Uranus contains a gas that makes the planet smell like rotten eggs — or a fart-like smell. This is because the planet is enveloped with a chemical composition containing hydrogen sulfide and ammonia, scientists revealed, in the paper published in Nature Astronomy. This discovery is significant as it may help scientists and astronomers understand how the early solar system was formed and how it evolved over time.

“If an unfortunate human were ever to descend through Uranus’s clouds, they would be met with very unpleasant and odiferous conditions,” Patrick Irwin, co-author of the study from the University of Oxford, was quoted as saying by the BBC. The detection of the gas surrounding Uranus was made using the 8-meter Gemini North telescope on Hawaii’s Mauna Kea. The telescope’s spectrometer measured reflected sunlight from a region directly above the main visible cloud layer in the planet’s atmosphere.

“During our Solar System’s formation the balance between nitrogen and sulfur (and hence ammonia and Uranus’s newly-detected hydrogen sulfide) was determined by the temperature and location of planet’s formation,” Leigh Fletcher, a member of the research team from the University of Leicester in the UK, said. “Only a tiny amount remains above the clouds as a saturated vapour. And this is why it is so challenging to capture the signatures of ammonia and hydrogen sulfide above cloud decks of Uranus.” “The superior capabilities of Gemini finally gave us that lucky break,” he added.

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