Voyager 2 is the only craft to visit Uranus. Its findings may have misled us for 40 years.
But when Voyager 2 got an up-close look at Uranus in 1986, scientists were able to glean some insights that, while confounding, at least shed some light on a crucial characteristic that seemed to set the planet apart from other giants like Jupiter.
Long ago, Voyager 2 might have caught Uranus at a bad time
Much of what we understand about Uranus comes from data gathered by NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft. Thirty-eight years ago, this probe flew by the ice giant, providing humanity with its first close-up glimpse of the seventh planet from the sun.
Uranus may have looked weird when NASA’s Voyager 2 flew by
A solar wind event days before the NASA probe flyby in 1986 may have compressed the planet’s magnetosphere, making it look odder than it usually is.
Something Strange Happened During Voyager 2’s Flyby of Uranus in 1986
When Voyager 2 flew past the ice giant 38 years ago, it revealed a magnetosphere warped by solar winds, a finding uncovered through recent analysis of archival data.
Uranus Might Have Experienced a Freak Event When Voyager 2 Visited
Much of the understanding of the seventh planet comes from a brief flyby nearly 40 years ago, which researchers now say overlapped with an exceptional solar event.
Our only visit to Uranus came at an unusual time for the planet
Voyager 2 flew by Uranus in 1986, giving us our only up-close look at the planet – but unusual space weather just before the craft arrived has given us a misleading idea about the planet’s magnetic fi
NASA's Voyager 2 data on Uranus moons may have been skewed by solar storm
Previously it was believed Uranus' moons were desolate, desert-like worlds, but now it seems that the data from the Voyager 2 probe.
Smithsonian Magazine on MSN21h
Voyager 2 Measured a Rare Anomaly When It Flew Past Uranus, Skewing Our Knowledge of the Planet for 40 Years, Study Suggests
The roughly six-hour flyby in 1986 revealed Uranus' protective magnetic field was strangely empty. Now, researchers say that ...
New Uranus research suggests what’s known about the planet could be wrong
A solar wind event squashed the protective bubble around Uranus just before Voyager 2 flew by the planet in 1986, shifting ...
Almost Everything We Know About Planet Uranus May Be Wrong
"The Voyager 2 flyby of Uranus in 1986 revealed an unusually oblique and off-centred magnetic field," the researchers wrote.
Futurism on MSN11h
Wind Blowing Out of Uranus Makes It Hard to Probe, NASA Complains
Scientists have found that a "rare intense wind event" during NASA's Voyager 2 flyby of Uranus in 1986 may have messed with ...
Nature1d
Ice-giant planet was having a bad day when Voyager came calling
Jamie Jasinski at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, and his colleagues reanalysed Voyager 2 data from ...
NASA Solves Decades Old Mysteries Of Uranus After Deep Dive Into Voyager 2 Data
New research suggests that just before Voyager 2 arrived, Uranus was hit by a rare blast of solar wind from the Sun that ...
Uranus, the ice giant, may have been misunderstood for nearly 40 years
A rare solar wind event was taking place when NASA’s Voyager 2 zipped by in 1986, a study suggests, which affected what we ...
Spacecraft completed for NASA's TRACERS mission, key milestone passed
The twin spacecraft of NASA's TRACERS (Tandem Reconnection and Cusp Electrodynamics Reconnaissance Satellites) mission were ...