What NASA can learn from missions to the wild world

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(Conversation) Uranus 7th planet from the sunorbits the outer solar system, about 2 billion miles (3.2 billion kilometers) from Earth. It is a huge world – its diameter is 4 times that of Earth, its mass is 15 times larger and its volume is 63 times larger.

It is easy to divide the solar system into two large groups. an inner zone containing four rocky planets and an outer zone containing four giant planets. But, as always, nature is more complicated.Uranus and Neptune, the 8th planet from the sun, very different from the others. Both are giant ice cubes, primarily composed of water, ice, ammonia, methane, and other compounds. The average temperature is between -320 degrees Fahrenheit and -350 degrees Fahrenheit (-212 degrees Celsius).

through Recent discoveries of exoplanets – Trillions of miles away, in a world outside our solar system – astronomers have learned that ice giants are common throughout the galaxy. These call into question our understanding of planet formation and evolution. Uranus’ relative proximity to us provides the basis for learning about them.

This time, the spacecraft won’t simply pass by Uranus on its way to somewhere else. Voyager 2 did it.. Instead, the probe will spend years orbiting the planet, studying its 27 moons and 13 rings.

You may be wondering why we would send a spacecraft to Uranus instead of Neptune. It’s a question of orbital structure.Due to the positions of both planets over the next 20 years, spacecraft from Earth will Easy to track trajectory It reaches Uranus more than Neptune. If launched at the right time, the spacecraft will arrive at Uranus in about 12 years.

Here are some basic questions to help Uranus explorers answer.What exactly is Uranus made of? Why Uranus? tilted to the side, during the summer its poles point almost straight towards the sun, but is this different from all the other planets in the solar system?What is generating Uranus? strange magnetic field, has a different shape from Earth and is offset from the direction of the planet’s rotation? How does atmospheric circulation work in ice giants? What do the answers to all these questions tell us about how ice giants form?

Despite the advances scientists have made on these and other questions since the Voyager 2 flyby, there is no substitute for direct close-up and repeated observations from an orbiting spacecraft.

The ring and the moon

The rings around Uranus are probably made of dirty ice and are thinner and dimmer than the rings around Saturn. The Uranus probe will look for “ripples” in it, similar to waves in a lake.Finding them will allow the scientist to use the rings. As a giant seismograph to help us learn about Inside Uranusone of its big secrets.

The moons are named after literary figures, mostly from the works of Shakespeare and Pope Francis, and are primarily made of a frozen mixture of ice and rock. The five moons are particularly attractive. Miranda, Ariel, Umbriel, Titania, Oberon They are all large enough to be spherical and treated as miniature worlds in themselves.

Voyager 2 is in flight. I took a low resolution image satellite in the southern hemisphere. (Their northern hemisphere is still invisible and one of the major unexplored frontiers of our solar system.) These images include the photo below. Ariel’s Ice Volcano – Interesting hints of past geological and tectonic activity and perhaps groundwater.

The possibilities of the ocean and life

This leads to one of the most exciting parts of this mission. Many planetary scientists theorize that Ariel, and perhaps most or all of her other five moons, could be planets. ocean world Many miles below the surface of solid ice lurk large subterranean bodies of liquid water. Determining whether any of the moons have oceans is one of the mission’s main goals.

This is probably the orbiter magnetometer – One of the satellites detects electromagnetic interactions in the underground ocean. Traveling through Uranus’s magnetic field. Instruments to measure the satellite’s gravitational field and cameras to study surface geology could also be useful.

No launch date has been set for the mission, nor has there been a formal green light for funding from NASA. The cost will likely be more than $1 billion.

One important factor to consider is that the universe moves on its own timetable, and the spacecraft’s trajectory to Uranus will change over the years as the planet moves along its orbit. Ideally, NASA would launch the mission in 2031 or 2032 to maximize orbital convenience and minimize travel time. That period is shorter than you think. It will take years of planning and even more years of building the spacecraft before it is ready for launch. That’s why now is the time to start the process and fund this fascinating global mission.