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The more scientists study it, the stranger it is Uranus gets.
The new mystery to add to the repertoire of the planet? Astronomers have detected X-rays from the strange world – and while some of the signals may be emissions reflected from the sun, some appear to be from the planet itself, according to one NASA statement.
This is according to new research that analyzed observations of Uranus collected by NASA Chandra X-ray Observatory in 2002 and 2017.
Related: Photos of Uranus, the giant tilted planet
Many objects in the solar system emit X-rays – from Venus to Saturn to Jupiter’s moons, the scientists write in a paper describing their research. In fact, among the planets of the solar system, only Uranus and Neptune were missing from the list.
The team of astronomers was particularly drawn to the study of Uranus with X-rays because the alignments of the planet are quite confused: the planet is on its side and the axis of its magnetic field is akimbo of the orbital plane and the axis of rotation. The skewed axes can trigger particularly complicated Northern Lights, which can emit x-rays.
So scientists decided to delve into Chandra’s rare sightings of Uranus – just three data segments, one from August 2002 and two from November 2017. The 2002 and 2017 sightings also come from different instruments in the telescope, and in Based on 2017 data, researchers cannot clearly identify which x-rays are coming from the planet itself and which from elsewhere in the detector’s view.
All of this means that scientists, as usual, want more observations. But according to the researchers, the two data patches seem to show X-ray emissions of the strange planet – and more than one would expect from the scattering of the planet’s atmosphere by X-ray emissions from the sun alone.
While some of the x-rays detected by the researchers are indeed from Uranus itself, rather than from reflected emissions from the sun, a few phenomena could be at play, the scientists wrote. The rings of Saturn X-fluoresce when struck by charged particles from the sun, and both sets of Uranus rings can do the same. Or, the x-rays can come from auroras on Uranus, as they do on Jupiter, although scientists are not sure what would trigger the auroras themselves.
Scientists hope that Chandra’s future observations can help determine what is happening to Uranus. The missions that have not yet been launched could also allow the study of the planet’s x-ray emissions, in particular Advanced telescope for high energy astrophysics (ATHENA), the launch of which is scheduled for 2031, or Lynx X-ray Observatory mission that NASA plans to launch after its Roman telescope Nancy Grace.
The research is described in a document published today (March 31) in the Journal of Geophysical Research.
Email Meghan Bartels at [email protected] or follow her on Twitter @meghanbartels. follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.
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