New Study Suggests Uranus and Neptune May Contain Significant Rocky Material

For generations, astronomers believed they understood the architecture of our solar system's outer worlds — gas giants on one side, ice giants on the other, each category carrying its own assumed composition. A new study now unsettles that confidence, presenting evidence that Uranus and Neptune hold far more rocky material within their interiors than prevailing models have allowed. The finding is a reminder that even the planets we have named and mapped remain, in their depths, largely unknown to us — and that the story of how worlds are built is still being written.