NASA wants to probe deeply Uranus in search of stinky gas



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NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft overflew Uranus, the seventh planet of the Sun, in January 1986.

On January 24, 1986, the spacecraft approached 81,500 km from the peaks of Uranus clouds.

Voyager 2 has radioed thousands of images and voluminous amounts of other scientific data on the planet, its moons, rings, atmosphere, interior and the magnetic environment surrounding Uranus.

A map of the external solar system (photo: AFP / Getty)

Since its launch on August 20, 1977, the Voyager 2 route has taken the spacecraft to Jupiter in July 1979, to Saturn in August 1981, and then to Uranus. The next Voyager 2 meeting was with Neptune in August 1989. Both Voyager 2 and its twin, Voyager 1, will eventually leave our solar system and enter interstellar space.

MORE: Sorry, you've probably said the wrong word Uranus all your life

The images of the five largest moons around Uranus in Voyager 2 revealed complex surfaces indicating varied geological past. The cameras also detected 10 moons never seen before.

The eleven rings of Uranus, opaque and wide of a few kilometers each, are relatively young in terms of space – no more than 600 million years old. They were probably formed by collisional fragmentation of several moons that once gravitated around the planet (Photo: BSIP / UIG Via Getty)

Several instruments have studied the ring system, discovering the details of previously known rings and two newly detected rings.

Voyager's data showed that the planet's rotation rate is 17 hours and 14 minutes.

The probe also found a Uranian magnetic field both large and unusual. Moreover, the temperature of the equatorial region, which receives less sunlight during an Uranian year, is nevertheless about the same as that of the poles.

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