Mark Hofstadter, a researcher at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, told Gizmodo what the atmosphere of Uranus smells like. In his opinion, the gases present on the giant planet give the local air the scent of rotten eggs and urine.
The scientist believes that, although the gas envelope of Uranus is too cold and poisonous for a person who descended into the planet's atmosphere to directly smell its smell, air samples could be collected by automatic devices. In this case, different compounds will be present in the samples. The composition of the samples depends on the layers from which they were taken. So, in the upper ones there are hydrogen, helium and methane, and in the lower ones - hydrogen sulfide, ammonia, methane and carbon dioxide.
At the same time, the concentration of ammonia is quite small and reaches one hundred parts per billion, however, according to Hofstadter, this gas can condense and form clouds that smell like cat urine. Hydrogen sulfide is likely to form such accumulations, which gives the atmosphere the flavor of rotten eggs.
The gas envelopes of other giant planets - Jupiter, Saturn and Neptune - also contain odor-producing compounds, but their concentration is lower.