Voyager 2’s Flyby sheds light on the magnetic mystery of Uranus
A recent analysis of 38-year-old data from NASA’s Voyager 2 spacecraft has provided new insights into Uranus’ unique magnetosphere, according to a study published Nov. 11 in Nature Astronomy. During Voyager 2’s flyby in 1986, Uranus’ magnetosphere was unexpectedly deformed by an explosion of solar wind. The findings suggest that the planet’s magnetic field behaves differently than any other in the solar system.
Findings highlight unusual magnetic structures
Jamie Jasinski, a planetary scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the California Institute of Technology, and lead author of the studynoted that Voyager 2’s timing happened to coincide with an intense solar wind, a rare event near Uranus. It is thought that this compression of Uranus’ magnetosphere, observed only about 4% of the time, is responsible for the unique measurements made by Voyager. Had the spacecraft arrived even a week earlier, Jasinski noted, these conditions would likely have been different, potentially leading to alternative conclusions about Uranus’ magnetic properties.
Unlike Earth, Uranus exhibits a complex ‘open-closed’ magnetic process, influenced by its extreme axial tilt. This tilt subjects Uranus to highly variable solar wind effects, resulting in a magnetosphere that opens and closes cyclically.
Implications for future exploration of Uranus
The study’s conclusions go beyond Uranus itself and provide insight into the magnetic behavior of its outer moons, including Titania and Oberon. It turns out that these moons are inside Uranus’ magnetosphere rather than outside it, making them candidates for exploration of subsurface oceans through magnetic field detection. As Jasinski highlighted, these conditions would simplify detecting any magnetic features that suggest fluid beneath the moons’ icy surfaces.
Although Voyager 2 remains the only mission to visit Uranus, the study’s findings underscore a growing interest in examining the ice giant in more detail.
