A recent study suggests that Uranus and Neptune might not consist of what we previously believed.

While we’ve always held the belief that Uranus and Neptune, the ice giants of our solar system, are abundant in frozen water, a new study suggests another interesting fact: these icy planets could also house a significant amount of methane ice. As our understanding of these mystifying bodies remains limited (they’ve only had one visitor, Voyager 2, back in the 1980s), these findings might just solve a crucial puzzle about their origins.

Voyager 2 and Earth-based telescopic readings have allowed astronomers to devise models of what these ice giants could be made of, but they give no explanation about how they came to be. Uri Malamud, lead author of the study, has proposed a solution. As these planets formed, they might have accreted carbon-rich objects, not unlike comets hailing from the Kuiper Belt. This throws up an intriguing question: “How is it possible to form an icy giant from ice-poor building blocks?”

To address this, Malamud and his team constructed several models of the interiors of Uranus and Neptune. Using an algorithm, they considered diverse elemental composition, including iron, water, and methane. Astonishingly, the models that bore resemblance to the actual ice giants were those abundant in methane, which resembled either solid lumps or a mushy layer due to pressure. Therefore, the presence of methane is potentially crucial in explaining how these icy giants composed of carbon-rich building blocks could go on to form an ice shell.

Despite these exciting findings, confirming the methane-rich composition may prove to be difficult. Future NASA missions that aim for exploring Uranus could hold the key. This research once again underlines our limited understanding of the outermost reaches of the solar system, pushing us to keep exploring and studying these fascinating celestial bodies.