In 1986, the Voyager 2 flyby of Uranus caught the planet in a rare magnetic anomaly caused by unique space weather that affected the behavior of the magnetosphere.

Voyager 2’s historic flyby of Uranus

Voyager 2 gave scientists the first and only close-up view of this unique outer planet with its axis of rotation horizontal to the ecliptic plane.

Now new research analyzing data from the flyby 38 years ago has shed light on this mystery.

Astronomer Jamie Jasinski of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California and lead author of the new work published Nov. 11 in the journal Nature Astronomy said, “If Voyager 2 had arrived just a few days earlier, day,

Importance of the magnetosphere

Magnetospheres act as protective bubbles around planets (including Earth) with their magnetic cores and magnetic fields.

This is why scientists are eager to study Uranus’ magnetosphere.

The missing plasma also puzzled scientists because they knew that Uranus’ five main moons, located in the parent planet’s magnetic bubble, must have produced water ions, like the surrounding icy moons around the other outer planets (including Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune) .

Impact of solar wind events

So why is plasma not observed and what is happening to enhance the electron radiation belts?

These findings could be good news for Uranus’ five major moons: Some of them may have recently become geologically active.

Missions are expected by the scientific community in the future

Planetary scientists are focused on consolidating their knowledge of the mysterious Uranus system.

Linda Spilker was one of the scientists who previously tracked Voyager 2.

Spilker said: “The flyby was full of surprises and we were looking for an explanation for its unusual behavior. The magnetosphere measured by Voyager 2 was only a brief snapshot. As for the work. This new discovery explains some apparent

Voyager 2, currently in interstellar space, is nearly 21 billion kilometers or 140 astronomical units from Earth.