Two sources of carbon dioxide on Uranus's moons
Uranus’s moons are coated with carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide. Using the James Webb Space Telescope, scientists have found that some of these gases may have been there since the moons’ birth, while some formed from space radiation—like frost on a window. So where does the ‘breath’ of these distant worlds really come from?
Recently, the James Webb telescope turned its gaze to the distant moons of Uranus — Ariel, Umbriel, Titania, and Oberon. It used a method reminiscent of splitting light into a rainbow — spectroscopy. This allows us to see what substances the surface is made of. To avoid interference from our Sun, scientists cleaned up the image. It's a bit like observing frost on a cold window: it can appear from the outside due to the cold, or from the inside due to humid air in the room.
It turned out that carbon dioxide on Uranus's moons also has a dual nature. Part of it is born right on the surface: the powerful radiation from the giant planet reworks local substances into CO₂. Another part seeps from the depths — through cracks and emissions, like the moons' inner breath. In places, the gas is mixed with water ice, forming something like solid fizz.
This duality is an important clue for science. It tells us that icy bodies can be chemically active, not just frozen lumps. Similar processes likely occur on other giant moons, and even on exoplanets in alien systems. This helps us better understand the carbon and hydrogen cycle in the Universe.
🎯 If you gathered all the carbon dioxide from Ariel's surface into its atmosphere, the pressure would be billions of times lower than Earth's. Yet the telescope detected this faint trace from a distance of nearly three billion kilometers.
🎬 Arthur C. Clarke in his novel "2010: Odyssey Two" described icy moons as potential resource sources. New data confirms: at least carbon dioxide is indeed there.