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Scientists have solved the mystery of Uranus and it’s all about the wind | Technology News
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Scientists have solved the mystery of Uranus and it’s all about the wind | Technology News

Uranus is very big (Image: Getty)

Scientists think they’ve got Uranus all wrong.

astronomers happened I work long and hardand they suggest that what they have believed for the last 40 years may not be true.

The ringed earth and its five largest moons may not be dead and barren, but instead may have oceans and their moons could possibly support life.

Because Uranus is so far away, most of what we know about it comes from information collected by NASA’s Voyager 2 spacecraft.

In January 1986, half of the twin spacecraft made a grand orbit past Uranus. During its five-hour flight, Voyager 2 found Uranus to be very strange.

While the spacecraft provided scientists with the first and only image of Uranus so far, some unexpected findings also emerged. It turns out that Uranus is almost on its own side, which makes it different from other planets in the solar system.

However, it appears that Uranus and its orbiting moons were motionless, unlike other celestial bodies in the outer solar system.

Two images of Uranus, one in real color and the other in false color, from the Voyager 2 spacecraft (Image: Getty)

Researchers have found that Uranus’ protective magnetic field is distorted, squashed and pushed away from the Sun, appearing weak and weak.

Generally, a planet’s magnetic field traps any gases and other matter that may originate from planets and moons, oceans, or geological activity.

But Voyager 2 found nothing; This surprised astronomers because Uranus and its five largest moons appear to be barren and motionless.

But a new article, Published in the journal Nature AstronomyHe thinks he has solved the mystery of Uranus.

New research suggests that Voyager 2 encountered strong solar wind as it passed by Uranus, resulting in very rare conditions.

Experts think that when the Sun got angry, it probably crushed the planet’s magnetic bubble. This pushed out all the plasma and its concentrated radiation belts (fields of charged particles trapped in the magnetic field line).

This means Uranus’ material may have been blown away and it may have a temporarily distorted magnetic field.

New findings suggest the planet and its moons may be geologically active and have oceans, along with other recent discoveries.


Uranus: celestial facts

• The ice giant is the third largest planet in the solar system and the seventh largest planet from the Sun.

• Surrounded by 13 faint rings and 28 small moons

• Uranus is the first planet found with the help of a telescope. It was discovered by astronomer William Herschel in 1781, although he initially thought it was a comet or star.

• Herschel credited his discovery with the reign of King King III. He tried to name it Georgium Sidus in memory of George but failed. Instead, the planet was named after the Greek god of the sky, Uranus.

• The planet is approximately 3.8 billion miles from the Sun, and the journey from the Sun to Uranus takes 2 hours and 40 minutes of sunlight.

• A day on Uranus lasts 17 Earth hours, but Uranus completes one orbit around the Sun in approximately 84 Earth years.

• Uranus is around -195°C

Co-author Dr William Dunn said: ‘Almost everything we know about Uranus It is based on Voyager 2’s two-day flight.

‘This new study shows that much of the planet’s strange behavior can be explained by the scale of the space weather phenomenon that occurred during this visit.

‘We now know less than we thought about what a typical day in the Uranus system might look like.

‘A major piece of evidence against the existence of oceans on the moons of Uranus was the failure to detect any water-related particles around the planet; Voyager 2 did not find water ions.

‘But now we can explain this: The solar storm would basically blow all this material away.’

To talk BBCDr Dunn revealed that the possibilities on Uranus are endless. He said: ‘These results suggest that the Uranus system could be much more exciting than previously thought.

‘There might be moons there that might have the conditions for life, there might be oceans beneath the surface that might be full of fish!’

Uranus seen from the James Webb Space Telescope (Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI)

Experts now think they need to revisit Uranus for a proper look. This will require a second spacecraft to visit the planet to learn more about it.

Lead author Dr. D. of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). Jamie Jasinski said: ‘If Voyager 2 had arrived just a few days earlier, it would have observed a completely different magnetosphere on Uranus.

‘The spacecraft saw Uranus in conditions that occurred only 4% of the time.’

NASA He wants to visit Uranus again and plans to launch a new mission called the Uranus Orbiter and Probe in 10 years to take a closer look.

NASA’s Uranus probe It’s expected to reach that goal by 2045, when researchers hope to learn whether these distant icy worlds are likely to host life.

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