Science
NASA wants to probe deeper into Uranus than ever before
NASA has always had an undeniable attraction towards digging deeper into Uranus. Even though it had been not paid much attention to generally because of its distance from Earth, now the space agency is taking a good, long look into it.
Image source: NASA/JPL
What for, you might be wondering!
The answer is simple – gas. Theresa May might thrash about to stick to power if the vote in EU elections’ A NASA group is given to highlight the main four potential missions to the famous two, Uranus and Neptune. It includes three orbiters and a potential fly-by of Uranus. The planned flights are expected to take off in the 2030s, as reported by New Scientist.
“The preferred mission is an orbiter with an atmospheric probe to either Uranus or Neptune – this provides the highest science value, and allows in depth study of all aspects of either planet’s system: rings, satellites, atmosphere, magnetosphere,” -Amy Simon, co-chair of the Ice Giants Pre-Decadal Study group.
Image source: Photojournal NASA/JPL
Moreover, Hubble might have discovered something amazing about Uranus. It has discovered something huge taking off Uranus One!
It became an investigation as part of his potential mission of the fly-by of Uranus. The journey is now going to be accompanied along with a narrow-angle camera, along with a probe which will be dropped onto the atmosphere of Uranus to calculate the present amount of gas and other heavy elements.
There have been four proposed missions so far. The three orbiters and a fly-by of Uranus are to consist of the narrow angle camera to figure out details, such as those of the Uranus’s moons. It would also drop an atmospheric probe to take a dive into Uranus’s atmosphere to measure the levels of gas and heavy elements there.
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The recent probing of Uranus has been by NASA’s Voyager 2 spacecraft. It is said to have flown in a close proximity of Uranus. Being the seventh planet from the Sun, it does hold some risk in terms of high concentration of oxygen deficient environment.
Image source: NASA/JPL
The last discovery was made in January 1986. At its best, the spacecraft came as close as 50,600 miles of Uranus’s surface on January 24, 1986. The spaceship named Voyager 2 sent thousands of images via the radio, along with huge amounts of other scientific information back to Earth. The data consisted of information such as the number of moons, rings, atmosphere, interior and the magnetic environment surrounding the planet.
Ever since its launch on August 20, 1977, the spaceship Voyager 2 route has witnessed the spacecraft travel to Jupiter in July 1979. Then it visited Saturn in August 1981 after which the journey finally ended on Uranus. Voyager 2 started the journey once again to leave for Neptune in August 1989. Along with its counterpart, Voyager 1, it was proposed to take off for the interstellar space from our planet Earth.
The pictures of the spaceship Voyager 2 revealed the five largest moons around Uranus. It also exposed the layers of multifaceted surfaces that spoke of multiple geologic pasts.
The cameras also pointed out 10 never seen before moons! The eleven rings of Uranus, which are opaque in nature, and a few kilometers in width and not so old if talked about in space terms. They are not more than 600 million years old.
According to the information collected, they were almost certainly created by the mash up which caused fragmentation of multiple moons. Many instruments were used to study the ring system which uncovered the many details of the earlier known rings and two recently discovered rings.
The date provided by the Voyager spaceships illustrated the planet’s speed of rotation, which is 17 hours and 14 minutes. The spacecraft also discovered presence of a Uranian magnetic field, which is huge and strange in terms of its form. Moreover, the present temperature of the equatorial region, which does not receive as much sunlight over a Uranian year, is almost as similar as that at the poles.
Featured Image source: Max Pixel
