WASHINGTON — No, this isn’t a schoolyard joke: Top scientists have discovered the planet Uranus really does reek.
Due to “clouds of hydrogen sulfide” — the chemical compound that smells similar to a rotten egg — Uranus isn’t exactly the most habitable planet for humans, according to the study.
“If an unfortunate human were ever to descend through Uranus’ clouds, they would be met with very unpleasant and odoriferous conditions,” Patrick Irwin, first author of the study and a physics professor at the University of Oxford, told The Register.
There’s also the minor issue of temperatures reaching below 392 degrees below zero on the planet.
Scientists hadn’t found clear evidence of the planet’s chemical composition until now.
A Near-Infrared Integral Field Spectrometer (NIFS), a device in Hawaii, was used to filter sunlight reflected above the clouds to describe what the gas molecules are made of, The Register reported.
