A space probe visits the strangest planet in the solar system

Imagine a world in which the sun is high in the sky for 21 years and then doesn’t appear at all for another 21 years, a planet lying on its side, sometimes rolling forward in its orbit around the sun and sometimes in the opposite direction to its orbit – which, by the way, is impossible to direct One the same, because the magnetic field is quite chaotic.

This is the case on Uranus. The second outer planet of the solar system differs in a number of areas from all other planets. For decades, astronomers wished they could study it more closely.

Now it finally looks like their dream will come true. in a new one Report The United States National Research Council (NRC) recommends a spaceflight to Uranus as NASA’s flagship expedition in the 1930s. The idea is to send a satellite and put it into orbit around the planet for several years, while the measuring probe is to dive deep into the dense atmosphere.

The results should teach us more about our planetary system and about solar systems in other parts of the Milky Way, where Uranus-like planets have been shown to be common.

However, NASA technicians have a lot to do, because the spacecraft should be ready for launch in the early 2030s. If it fails, we are forced to wait decades for the next opportunity.

Thirty-six years since the last visit

flight to Uranus It becomes one of the longest running in the history of space travel. Specifically, Uranus orbits around 2.88 billion kilometers from the Sun, roughly 20 times farther from Earth.

Therefore, Uranus is also an icy planet. Like Neptune, the farthest planet in the solar system, it is called an ice giant. Uranus weighs 14.5 times more than Earth and is four times its diameter.

Only once did a spacecraft approach Uranus. That was when Voyager 2 passed the planet at a distance of 81,500 kilometers in 1986.

Since then, astronomers have only been able to study the planet from a distance, and scientists have demanded better observations than data provided by simple Voyager instruments.

The probe determined only the icy giant’s colour, size, temperature, density and magnetic field. More than that is required before scientists can solve the planet’s many mysteries.

The decision for a new expedition to Uranus could not wait any longer.

It will take seven to ten years to build the spacecraft, which has been dubbed the Uranus Probe. This means that it will be possible to get rid of it in the first half of the third decade of this century.

At that time, Jupiter lines up with Uranus, which is crucial for the expedition. Thanks to its gravity, Jupiter can launch the space probe towards its distant target, the journey taking only twelve years. Maneuverability also saves a lot of fuel and provides additional space for equipment.

The next opportunity will not come until the middle of the century, when the planets align themselves again.

When the spacecraft reaches Uranus, you will encounter a world that you could say shouldn’t actually exist. The location of the ice giant so far in the solar system is a mystery in itself.

Researchers believe that it is unlikely that the planet Uranus and Neptune They were born in their current orbits because there was not enough distant matter in the young solar system.

The prevailing theory is that ice giants formed near the sun and were then pushed out of the solar system when the gas giants Jupiter and Saturn fell into place in their current orbits.

An orbiting satellite can test this theory by measuring the elemental content of Uranus and comparing the results with it Jupiter And the Saturn.

Astronomers believe that Uranus consists of a core of iron, nickel and rock, and on top is a thick layer of ice, consisting of water, ammonia and methane.

Its atmosphere is mainly made of hydrogen and helium, but it also contains a small percentage of methane, which gives the ice giant its bright blue colour, as methane reflects blue sunlight into space.

Uranus has two rings around the equator and 27 moons. The largest five likely formed around the same time as the planet, while the rest may have been captured later by Uranus’ gravitational field.

The entire system would look normal if it weren’t for one thing: Uranus ended up on its side, with its axis of rotation roughly in the same plane as its orbit around the Sun.

It takes the planet 84 Earth years to complete one revolution around the sun, resulting in oddly long seasons. From a point on the planet, the sun rises for 21 Earth years, that is, a long day. For the next 21 years, the 17-hour day alternates between night and day, and for the next 21 years, one night is long and dark.

The collision may have occurred over Uranus

It’s uncertain how Uranus got its strange spin, but the leading theory is that the ice giant collided with a planet twice the mass of Earth at the beginning of the solar system.

Such a collision would be strong enough to topple Uranus. The ice giant no longer shows any traces of the collision, but perhaps the next mission can see if some of the moons contain material from the collision.

The collision may also provide answers to another of Uranus’s mysteries, which is that the planet is colder than Neptune. That shouldn’t be the case, because Neptune receives 40 percent less sunlight than Uranus.

The reason may be that the large impact nearly punctured Uranus, so that most of the heat was released from the core at once.

Another theory is that horizontal rotation makes the poles warmer than the equator, which could increase the planet’s heat loss. The third hypothesis is that the core of the ice giant is still hot, but an unknown layer between the mantle and the atmosphere prevents the release of heat.

In fact, all three of these theories are just guesses, but it is possible that the orbiting satellite will solve the mystery.

The same is true of the greatest mystery hidden in Uranus: the chaotic magnetic field.

In the main field, the magnetic poles are shifted by 59 degrees from the axis of rotation of the planet, which corresponds to the north pole of the Earth in Europe. At the same time, Uranus has many strong regional magnetic fields.

Both parts stand in stark contrast to the magnetic fields of the four rocky planets of the Solar System and two of the gas giants, where the magnetic axis is close to the axis of rotation and where the well-ordered fields resemble a magnetic rod.

full of tools

To solve many mysteries, the orbiting probe Uranus will bring with it a variety of scientific instruments. The details of the spacecraft may change over the next few years, but the overall design of the satellite and the measuring probe is in place.

Among other things, the satellite is equipped with four gyroscopes, which will be used to examine the internal structure of Uranus. This is done with the help of gravimetry, where gyroscopes record how changes in the ice giant’s gravitational field affect the satellite’s orbit.

The magnetometer will map the ice giant’s chaotic magnetic field, while the satellite’s camera will image the surface and cloud cover of Uranus.

There will be a dramatic highlight when the satellite drops a measuring probe, after it arrives, which will plunge into the atmosphere.

The probe contains a set of sensors that measure temperature, pressure, and density. At the same time, the mass spectrometer determines the micro-atmospheric content of hydrogen, helium and methane.

A well-equipped expedition will undoubtedly provide a variety of data, which will teach us a lot about Uranus. In addition, we will learn more about other solar energy systems.

Astronomers have now discovered more than 5,000 planets around exotic stars, and up to 40 percent of them are ice giants. Therefore, it is important to know how they are formed and the function they perform in the development of solar systems.

This way we can also see how similar we are Solar System They are others, and thus how special our home is in the universe.