Uranus rocky core?

DaveC426913

From The Nine Planets :

"Uranus is composed primarily of rock and various ices, with only about 15% hydrogen and a little helium (in contrast to Jupiter and Saturn which are mostly hydrogen). Uranus (and Neptune) are in many ways similar to the cores of Jupiter and Saturn minus the massive liquid metallic hydrogen envelope. It appears that Uranus does not have a rocky core like Jupiter and Saturn but rather that its material is more or less uniformly distributed.

Uranus' atmosphere is about 83% hydrogen, 15% helium and 2% methane."

They seem to be talking about Uranus' atmo as distinct from the planet's composition. Does Uranus have a rocky surface somewhere down there or not?

MadScientist 1000

A rocky core? Yes, considering the tremendous atmospheric pressure, but the same pressure will supercompress any rocky surface. What you are more likely to see is the following:

Gaseous Atmosphere
Liquid Oceans (Compressed Gas)
Solid (Hypercompressed Gas)
Core (Probably a really large DIAMOND)

The reason why the are talking about the atmosphere being different from the planet is because the composition of the core hasn't been discovered yet actually.