A new scientific article says that in the near future it is necessary to study all the secrets of Uranus and its moons.
Astrophysicist Kathleen Mandt of NASA has published a new scientific paper in which she urges the agency to build a new spacecraft in the near future and send it to explore Uranus. Futurism writes that this ice giant is a very strange planet and that its moons may have subterranean oceans that support life.
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Kathleen Mandt believes that it is not necessary to delay the creation of a spacecraft, codenamed Uranus Orbiter and Probe, to send to explore Uranus and its moons by 2032.
The scientist proposes to create a spacecraft, which will consist of two vehicles – an orbit from space that will study the entire planet and its moons, and a probe that will descend into the atmosphere of Uranus.
Mandt believes that the search for Uranus, an ice giant, could aid the search for other exoplanets outside the solar system. According to recent research, mysterious planets like Uranus have turned out to be among the most common planets in the universe.
While gas giants like Jupiter and Saturn are mostly gas, Uranus and Neptune, called ice giants (although they are actually gas giants), have heavier elements in their composition. But until now, Uranus, like Neptune, remains the most mysterious planets in the solar system, as scientists got most of the information about them only in the 1980s thanks to the Voyager spacecraft. But this information is clearly not enough.
“We still have a lot of unanswered questions, so we shouldn’t delay sending a spacecraft to Uranus, and it’s better to do it until 2032,” Mandt says.
On the other hand, a future mission to Uranus has already received NASA’s highest implementation priority for the next decade.
“This mission will help learn how Uranus was formed, help unravel its main mysteries, and we will also be able to learn more about moons that can obscure the rings and subsurface oceans with liquid water potential life,” – says Mandt.
This pale blue ice giant Uranus is 2.6 to 3.15 billion km from Earth, depending on the time of year on this planet. It makes a complete revolution around the Sun in 84 years, and scientists are aware of the existence of 27 moons in addition to 9 rings around the planet. One of the planet’s key quirks is the tilt of its axis of rotation, because it’s the only planet in the solar system and rotates around the sun as if it were tilted.
“It is believed that this position of Uranus in space may have resulted from the planet colliding with another object. But could a new spacecraft learn this way? We will also be able to learn more about the internal structure of ice.” The giant is what it is made of, what is in its atmosphere, at what temperature.
At the same time, scientists noticed some geological activity on some of Uranus’ moons that could indicate they are melting oceans of liquid water in their depths. Mandt says where there is water, there may be microbial life. Also, according to the scientist, the new mission could help discover previously unknown moons of the ice giant.
“The Uranus mission will not only reveal the main secrets of the planet, but will also shed light on the evolution of the solar system. It will also be the first step towards a comprehensive study of Neptune, which leaves many questions unanswered,” says Mandt.
About when scientists discovered Uranus, how long it takes to fly to the planet, how cold it is here, and other features of the ice giant Focus already written in detail.
Moreover Focus He wrote that scientists have proposed a new hypothesis explaining why the rotational axis of Uranus has such an unusual tilt.
As already written FocusLast fall, netizens suggested names for a spacecraft that should fly to Uranus. Some of the potential names may surprise you.
As for Neptune, again suitable for careful study, then Focus We have already written in detail the main features of this ice giant – the last, eighth planet of the solar system.
Source: Focus
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