What do we Really Know about Uranus and Neptune?

TL;DR

This paper investigates the internal structures of Uranus and Neptune, highlighting how uncertainties in rotation periods affect our understanding and suggesting they may have fundamentally different compositions despite similar sizes.

Contribution

It demonstrates that different rotation periods consistent with observed oblateness imply distinct internal structures for Uranus and Neptune.

Findings

Different rotation periods suggest different internal structures.

Uranus and Neptune may have contrasting compositions.

Understanding these differences impacts planetary formation theories.

Abstract

The internal structures and compositions of Uranus and Neptune are not well constrained due to the uncertainty in rotation period and flattening, as well as the relatively large error bars on the gravitational coefficients. While Uranus and Neptune are similar in mass and radius, they differ in other physical properties such as thermal emission, obliquity, and inferred atmospheric enrichment. In this letter we consider the uncertainty in the planetary rotation periods, show that rotation periods more consistent with the measured oblateness imply that Uranus and Neptune have different internal structures, and speculate on the source of that difference. We conclude that Uranus and Neptune might have very different structures and/or compositions despite their similar masses and radii. We point out that understanding these differences can have important implications for our view of the formation and evolution of Uranus and Neptune as well as intermediate-mass extra-solar planets in general.