It has affected their understanding of the planet
The planet Uranus and its five biggest moons may not be devoid of life as scientists initially thought.
Instead, it is now thought they may have oceans, and have the capability of supporting life.
Much of what we know about the planet and its moons was gathered by Nasa’s Voyager 2 spacecraft which visited nearly 40 years ago.
The first images sent back by Voyager 2 came in 1986 and showed the planet and its five major moons.
However, scientists have found that a “rare intense wind event” during NASA’s Voyager 2 flyby of Uranus in 1986 may have disrupted our understanding of the planet.
A new analysis, published in the journal Nature Astronomy, shows that Voyager’s visit coincided with a powerful solar storm, which led to a misleading idea of what the Uranian system is really like.
Uranus is a beautiful, icy ringed world in the outer reaches of our solar system and is among the coldest of all the planets.
It is also tilted on its side compared to all the other worlds – as if it had been knocked over.
What amazed scientists even more was the data Voyager 2 sent back indicating that the Uranian system was even weirder than they thought.
The measurements from the spacecraft’s instruments indicated that the planets and moons were inactive, unlike the other moons in the outer solar system.
It also showed that Uranus’s protective magnetic field was strangely distorted – it was squashed and pushed away from the sun.
Normally, a planet’s magnetic field traps any gases and other material coming off the planet and its moons for example from oceans or geological activity.
However, Voyager 2 found no evidence of these suggesting that Uranus was sterile and inactive which surprised scientists.
The new analysis suggests that Voyager 2 just flew past the planet on the wrong day – the Sun was raging, creating a powerful solar wind that might have blown the material away and temporarily distorted the magnetic field.
If Voyager 2 had come to visit just a mere week earlier, the researchers suggest it would have found a far more recognizable magnetosphere, like those surrounding other planets in our solar system, including Jupiter, Saturn, and Neptune.
Dr William Dunn of University College London said: “These results suggest that the Uranian system could be much more exciting than previously thought. There could be moons there that could have the conditions that are necessary for life, they might have oceans below the surface that could be teeming with fish!”
Nasa has plans to launch a new mission, the Uranus Orbiter and Probe, to go back for a closer look in 10 years’ time. The Uranus probe is expected to arrive by 2045.
