(ORDO NEWS) — NASA scientist urges the agency to build and launch a new exploration spacecraft designed, to everyone’s delight, to study “the mysteries of the Uranian system.”
“The proposed probe will explore how Uranus formed, how it migrated after formation, the planet’s internal structure, atmosphere, magnetosphere and ring system, and moons that may have ever or still have subsurface liquid water oceans,” NASA astrophysicist Kathleen Mandt wrote.
Uranus is a cosmic oddity
Uranus, the pale blue ice giant, is between 2.6 and 3.15 billion kilometers from our Earth depending on the time of year, and an exploration mission targeting this planet’s system would actually be very exciting scientifically. points of view.
Uranus is a particularly bizarre planet. This object seems to “lie on its side” (the inclination of the plane of rotation to the ecliptic is 98 degrees), has 27 satellites, and its atmosphere shows mysterious activity.
Despite scientific interest in Uranus, which does not seem to fit into the solar system , NASA has not sent a spacecraft to explore it since Voyager 2 flew by back in 1986.
After all, scientists have long been interested in carefully studying all the planets of the solar system in order to understand how our own world and all the diversity of life that exists on it came into being.
The study of Uranus will undoubtedly contribute to a deeper understanding of our solar system and therefore ourselves. Thus, according to Mandt, it is time for NASA to aim for a return to the Uranian system.
“The space science community has waited over 30 years to start exploring ice giants,” Mandt said, “and missions to them will benefit generations.”
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