New Discoveries in Decades-old Data

Produced by the Space Telescope Science Institute’s Office of Public Outreach in collaboration with NASA’s Universe of Learning partners: Caltech/IPAC, Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian, and NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Video imagery:

·       Uranus, Voyager 2: NASA/JPL

·       Uranus crescent, Voyager 2: NASA/JPL

·       Artist’s concept, Uranus magnetosphere during Voyager 2 flyby: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Music from Music for Non-Profits 

 

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Various space phenomena, including super novas, stars, and galaxies. 

 

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Text: News From The Universe. 

 

New Discoveries in Decades-Old Data. November 12, 2024. 

 

A rendering of Uranus as a smooth blue planet. 

 

Text: Important new research is still being done with data collected during the Voyager 2 spacecraft flyby of Uranus in 1986. 

 

At the time, scientists could not explain Uranus' magnetic fields, which appeared very different from those surrounding other planets, including Earth. 

 

Uranus covered by shadow. 

 

The magnetic field had intense radiation belts but no source of energized particles feeding them, and almost none of the plasma expected from its icy moons. 

 

An artist's concept of Uranus and surrounding space. 

 

Text: The new research shows that at the time of the Voyager 2 flyby, Uranus had just been hit by a blast of solar wind. The solar wind pounded and compressed the planet's magnetosphere bubble, pushing out its plasma and feeding the radiation belts with electrons. 

 

Two intense radiation belts emit from opposite ends of Uranus, and a small magnetic bubble envelops all of it. Dense plasma from the sun collides with the small magnetic bubble. 

 

Text: Scientists now say that Voyager 2 saw Uranus' magnetosphere in conditions that only occur about 4% of the time. 

 

Uranus. 

 

Text: This news was brought to you in part by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, CA. 

 

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