back to article Look, we've tried, but we just can't write this headline without saying boffins have probed Uranus's cold ring

Astronomers have measured the temperature of one of Uranus’s rings, dubbed Epsilon, for the first time. The result: the cluster of ice and rock is a nippy 77 kelvin. Uranus, our Solar System's far-flung icy electric-blue-colored ball, is circled by 13 rings. They were only recently discovered, as early as 1977, due to their …

  1. Richard 12 Silver badge

    Uranus might have a sticky ring?

    I guess that would explain the lack of dust.

    Weird. Dust is normally everywhere.

    1. Mark 85
      Coat

      Re: Uranus might have a sticky ring?

      So "ring around Uranus" is the reason? I'll go quietly now....

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I don't mind the headline, to be fair it could have been that you were all Saturn Uranus instead.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Joke

    Old dumb joke alert...

    Q: What do the starship Enterprise and toilet paper have in common?

    A: They both circle Uranus, wiping out Klingons.

    (Sorry)

    1. bjzq888

      Re: Old dumb joke alert...

      What did Mr. Spock find in the toilet on the starship Enterprise?

      ...The Captain's log.

  4. Zog_but_not_the_first
    Thumb Up

    Purile, childish and gross...

    Keep it up.

  5. CAPS LOCK

    77 Kelvin you say? Not good but not terrible, however...

    ... that is the boilng point of nitrogen. Coincidence? I don't think so...

    1. This post has been deleted by its author

      1. Bandikoto

        Re: 77 Kelvin you say? Not good but not terrible, however...

        What's the boiling point of Nitrogen at the other bar, then?

        Try the veal.

  6. Denarius Silver badge

    colour

    I thought Uranus was greenish, Neptune blue. Seems current thinking is Uranus is blue-green. OTOH, it is very dim out there. Low colour saturation.

    1. jelabarre59

      Re: colour

      I thought Uranus was greenish, Neptune blue. Seems current thinking is Uranus is blue-green.

      Actually, Uranus was the blonde. Neptune had the green hair.

      (and here I thought Neptune would have been the only one Uranus would have allowed to probe her cold ring... Except maybe Usagi.)

    2. sundog
      Coat

      Re: colour

      No, they're various sickly grey colors. I've seen the pictures, and all the rest of my color blind friends agree with me.

      Mine's the one with the monochromatic paint chips in the pocket...

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: colour

      Well, Ouranos was the sky god, so presumably blue. Neptune is identified with Poseidon, the god of the wine-dark sea, so bluish-purple with a slight smell of resin.

      But I suspect that Homer is as reliable a guide to astronomy as his modern namesake is to nukular physics.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Unbelievably Puerile

    Next you'll be making a joke about leather clad Harley Davidson owners giving each other their riding bells as a gift.

  8. Potemkine! Silver badge

    77K is hot compared to the 1K in surrounding space. Where does the heat come from? The sun? :-~

    1. Cuddles

      Not sure why you think the surrounding space would be 1K. The cosmic microwave background is about 3K, so literally nowhere in the universe is colder than that (at least not without some active mechanism to pump heat around, as is done in some experiments here on Earth). Close to a heat source, such as near a Sun, temperatures are of course much higher. Even Pluto doesn't drop below around 30K, and Uranus is a lot closer to the Sun than that.

      1. Ragarath
        Joke

        and Uranus is a lot closer to the Sun than that.

        It's only closer when I bend over.

        1. Geoff May (no relation)

          In which direction?

        2. This post has been deleted by its author

      2. Potemkine! Silver badge

        3K instead of 1K all right, but you still have to found a low of thermal flux to compensate the loss of heat by radiation from the rings. I didn't realize the Sun was throwing to much flux to heat sensibly a body that far.

  9. Jarndyce
    Alien

    Weird usage of 'glomming'

    As an ardent but rather fumbling student of the English language I stumbled over the word glomming as in: ".. it’s all glomming together.."

    Now, the Urban dictionary defines glomming as

    "The act of making out in a particularly slobbery and intense manner ..."

    Gives me weird mental pictures in an alien space context.

    1. Scroticus Canis
      Happy

      Re: Weird usage of 'glomming'

      Try the OED - sense 2: become stuck or attached to a thing (or person). American informal from the Scottish glaum.

      Katyanna's usage is correct and descriptive of 'slushy' particles sticking together.

      Now about your mental imagery of aliens ...

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Weird usage of 'glomming'

      An urban dictionary obviously doesn't apply in space.

      What does the Hitchhikers' Guide say?

      1. The Oncoming Scorn Silver badge

        Re: Weird usage of 'glomming'

        Don't Panic.

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    That would have been epic

    It's just too bad a certain manufacturer didn't supply equipment to the telescopes. "Huawei Uranus has cold rings" would have made my day.

  11. 89724102172714182892114I7551670349743096734346773478647892349863592355648544996312855148587659264921

    Uranus should be warm in the middle

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