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Podcast: StarDate
Episode: Uranus at Opposition III
Description: The planet Uranus has always been an oddball. It lies on its side, so it rolls around the Sun like a giant bowling ball. Its magnetic field is tilted and offset more than any other planet’s.
And for the past four decades, it’s seemed that the planet radiated less energy into space than it receives from the Sun. The solar system’s other giant planets all radiate at least twice as much energy as they receive – mainly in the form of heat left over from their formation.
But two recent studies have changed that sto...