Mankind has visited Uranus only once, now for 37 years. NASA’s Voyager 2 spacecraft On January 24, 1986, a mysterious distant gas passed very close to the planet.
Voyager 2 sent back stunning images of the planet and its moons during the flyby, allowing for about five hours of detailed exploration. 81,500 kilometers away.
“We know it will be different because Uranus is tilted to one side.“, said Ed Stone, Voyager mission scientist based at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena since 1972, according to NASA.
Uranus It turns out to be the coldest known planet in our solar systemThis is because it has no internal heat sources, even though it is not very far from the Sun.
Scientists determined that Uranus’ atmosphere is 85 percent hydrogen and 15 percent helium. There was also evidence of a boiling ocean 800 kilometers below the clouds.
Scientists have discovered that Uranus has a magnetic field, unlike the one previously discovered. On Mercury, Earth, Jupiter and Saturn, the magnetic field is roughly aligned with the axis of rotation.
“Then we went to Uranus and found that the poles are closer to the equator.Stone said. “Neptune turned out to be similar. The magnetic field wasn’t centered around the center of the planet.”
This Uranus magnetic field is stronger than Saturn’s magnetic field. Data from Voyager 2 helped scientists determine that Uranus’s magnetic tail spins in a helix 10 million kilometers long in the direction away from the Sun. Understanding how planetary magnetic fields interact with the Sun is a key part of NASA’s goal of understanding the nature of space. Studying the Sun-planet relationship not only provides useful information for space travel, but also helps shed light on the origin of planets and their ability to support life.
Miranda
Voyager 2 discovered 10 new moons (there are 27 in total) and two new rings on the planet, which was also fascinating. An icy moon named Miranda revealed a strangely varied landscape and evidence of active geological activity in the past. About 500 kilometers in diameter, this tiny object has gigantic canyons 12 times deeper than the Grand Canyon of the Colorado. Miranda has three distinctive features called “coronae”, which are groups of crater ridges and valleys. Scientists believe that the moon may have been fragmented and then reshaped.
Mission planners designed Voyager 2’s encounter with Uranus so that the spacecraft would receive a gravitational boost to help it reach Neptune. Voyager 2 added Neptune to its map in 1989.
Voyager 2 launched on August 20, 1977, 16 days before its twin, Voyager 1. In August 2012, Voyager 1 made history as the first spacecraft to enter interstellar space. Voyager 2 accomplished this feat on November 2018.
