So we can see planets around stars hundreds of light years away and tell what their atmosphere is likely to be but we can't do it in our own back yard? Seems astro-boffins still have it in for our little planet.
No way to sugarcoat this: I'm afraid Uranus opens and closes to accept particle streams
Scientists digging through old readings from NASA’s Voyager 2 mission in 1986 have found that Uranus’ magnetic field swings open and shut like the aperture of a revolving door. Uranus doesn’t just have a funny name, it has a silly orbit too. It’s the only planet in the Solar System to lie on its side – almost 98˚ from its …
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Tuesday 27th June 2017 10:27 GMT TitterYeNot
Re: It's always fascinating when they probe Uranus.
"I think they should start using modern fictional characters, and the next moon of Uranus they discover should be called 'Little Finger'"
Dear Sir,
You may feel that having 'Little Finger' circling the ring of Uranus on the outer rim of the Solar System is appropriate astrolonomy, but as a happily married woman I must vehemently protest.
Yours Sincerely,
Mrs Trellis, North Wales
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Tuesday 27th June 2017 13:33 GMT John Brown (no body)
Re: It's always fascinating when they probe Uranus.
And not only the naming of the door but "Uranus’ magnetic field swings open and shut like the aperture of a revolving door." sounds a bit off to me. A revolving door never has an open aperture. Maybe the author meant a sliding door, or even a bog standard door hanging on hinges?
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Tuesday 27th June 2017 17:07 GMT Fatman
Re: It's always fascinating when they probe Uranus.
<quote>but "Uranus’ magnetic field swings open and shut like the aperture of a revolving door."</quote>
I vaguely remember that being a plot device in an old Star Trek episode, now, if I can only remember its title. I remember that Lee Meriwether starred in it.
Found it:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0708450/
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Tuesday 27th June 2017 17:14 GMT DropBear
Re: It's always fascinating when they probe Uranus.
"A revolving door never has an open aperture."
You're essentially right of course, but not all revolving doors are created equal - while elite establishments like banks and expensive hotels seem to favour the classic four-wing model that indeed never really opens or closes, places like supermarkets with high-volume traffic tend to favour the large-volume, two-winged variant (like this one) that does indeed "open and close" as it turns. Maybe the author had one of those in mind...?
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Tuesday 27th June 2017 18:25 GMT John Brown (no body)
Re: It's always fascinating when they probe Uranus.
"supermarkets with high-volume traffic tend to favour the large-volume, two-winged variant (like this one) that does indeed "open and close" as it turns. Maybe the author had one of those in mind...?"
FWIW, that one in the video never opens either, at least not all the way through. It's like almost every revolving door ever, ie it works like an airlock.
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Tuesday 27th June 2017 06:41 GMT John Smith 19
"majority of exoplanets that have been discovered appear to also be ice giants in size."
Perhaps because it's easier to spot a big (tiny) dot moving in front of its parent star than a tiny (tiny) dot moving in front of its parent star?
Some where on a planet far far away.
"What? We made spin with an axis close to the solar systems ecliptic, with a magnetic field 50 deg off that and the Humans still didn't think it was worth inspecting more closely?"
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Tuesday 27th June 2017 10:09 GMT Anonymous Coward
Weird planet.
It's not just lying on its side and with wildly different magnetic and rotational poles, but Uranus's magnetic field isn't even generated in its core. It's centred about 1/3 of the way out from the centre towards the north pole which suggests something electrically conductive is swirling away deep in Uranus.
Which leads to the second problem - Uranus is unbelievably cold and appears to have no internal source of heat, unlike the very similar Neptune which is seething away furiously.
We badly need to send another mission out there to take another look.
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Wednesday 28th June 2017 10:57 GMT cray74
Re: Weird planet.
We badly need to send another mission out there to take another look.
Yep, no doubt with an endless series of puns about probing the methane clouds of Uranus temporarily crippling the internet.
More seriously, one of the possible end missions for Cassini was to send it to Uranus. With a Titanian gravity assist, it'd putter its way there in about 20 years. But that was expensive (the team would have to be maintained for 20 more years), the probe would lack propellant for any significant maneuvers, and science return would be limited.
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Tuesday 27th June 2017 11:49 GMT Axman
Re: I HATES it!
"Toad Hall," said the Toad proudly, "is an eligible self- contained gentleman's residence, very unique; dating in part from the fourteenth century, but replete with every modern convenience. Up-to-date sanitation. Five minutes from church, post-office, and golf-links, Suitable for..."
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Tuesday 27th June 2017 16:25 GMT Chris Evans
98 degrees tilt? I'm confused!
A tilt of axis up to 90 degrees I can understand but how can you have more than 90 degrees?
98 degrees would be 82 degrees the other way surely?
Which way is up?
n.b. I keep my globe with the south pole at the top to demonstrate to my grandchildren that there isn't a right way up, only a relative positioning.
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Tuesday 27th June 2017 17:17 GMT David Knapman
Re: 98 degrees tilt? I'm confused!
Think in terms of rotation. If a planet is orbiting a star clockwise (from some viewpoint) and the planet is also rotating clockwise (from same viewpoint), there is zero axial tilt.
If, from the same perspective, the planet is orbiting the star clockwise, but is rotating anti-clockwise, the axial tilt may be described as 180 degrees.
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Biting the hand that feeds IT
