Astronomers Have Discovered That an Exoplanet Stinks More Than Uranus
If you were able to land on Uranus, which you can’t because it is made of gas, you would be greeted with something that smells a whole lot like someone just broke wind. However, an exoplanet in the Milky Way recently observed by the James Webb Space Telescope might be able to give Uranus a run for its money.
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00:00If you were able to land on Uranus, which you can't because it's made of gas, you would
00:07be greeted with something that smells a whole lot like someone just broke wind.
00:11That's because it's mainly composed of ammonia and methane.
00:14However, an exoplanet in the Milky Way, recently observed by the James Webb Space Telescope,
00:20might be able to give Uranus a run for its money.
00:22This is an artist's impression of HD 189733b, which actually looks a whole lot like Uranus.
00:28It's around the size of Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system, and it's located
00:33just 64.5 light years from Earth.
00:35And just like Jupiter, astronomers have now detected hydrogen sulfide present in its atmosphere,
00:41a compound we have only ever detected in our own solar system.
00:44While methane gas smells like, well, farts, hydrogen sulfide smells like rotten eggs,
00:49meaning HD 189733b would smell terrible.
00:53Luckily, it's too close to its host star for humanity to ever travel to it.
00:57In fact, its orbit is so close, a year on this stinky planet only lasts 2.2 days.
01:02Astronomers say the discovery of hydrogen sulfide on HD 189733b is a big discovery,
01:08meaning they can now search for it elsewhere in the universe.