Scientists have discovered the existence of infrared auroras in Uranus for the first time, bringing a new perspective to explore the mystery of its high temperature.

CTOnews.com, October 31 (Xinhua)-- scientists have confirmed the existence of infrared auroras in the northern region of Uranus after an in-depth study of data recorded in the past 20 years, further improving the puzzle of human knowledge of Uranus and providing a new perspective for scientists to explore why Uranus is so hot.

CTOnews.com Note: Uranus is the seventh closest cyan planet in the solar system, ranking third in size and fourth in mass in the solar system.

Uranus orbits the sun once every 84 Earth years, with an average distance of about 3 billion kilometers. The intensity of sunlight on the planet is only one hundred hundred of that of Earth.

The rotation period inside Uranus is 17 hours and 14 minutes, but like all giant planets, its upper atmosphere can produce very strong winds in the direction of rotation.

Uranus is far away from the sun, but its temperature is higher than expected. One of the hypotheses that makes Uranus so hot is the high-energy aurora.

British scientists have decided to re-examine Uranus observations collected at the Keck Observatory in 2006. They carefully analyzed 224 images and found a startling result: they did see the luminescence of ionized triatomic hydrogen on Uranus, and its density changed over time.

This means that they have finally discovered the infrared aurora on Uranus! These auroras may be caused by the solar wind or other particle sources, which increase the amount of ionized triatomic hydrogen in Uranus's atmosphere and cause it to emit infrared light. These infrared lights may also affect the temperature and state of other molecules and atoms in Uranus's atmosphere.

Address: Thomas, E.M., Melin, H., Stallard, T.S. Et al. Detection of the infrared aurora at Uranus with Keck-NIRSPEC. Nat Astron (2023). Https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-023-02096-5