'Traffic jams' around Uranus could solve the mystery of its weak radiation belts

space.com ^ | Robert Lea

[BenLurkin]

The mystery dates back to Voyager 2's visit to Uranus in January 1986, far before the probe left the solar system in 2018. The spacecraft found that Uranus' magnetic field is asymmetric and tilted roughly 60° away from its spin axis. Additionally, Voyager 2 found that the radiation belts of Uranus, consisting of particles trapped by this magnetic field, are about 100 times weaker than predicted.

"It has a magnetic field like no other in the solar system. Most planets that have strong intrinsic magnetic fields, like Earth, Jupiter and Saturn. They have a very 'traditional' magnetic field shape, which is known as a dipole," lead author Matthew Acevski told Space.com. "This is the same magnetic field shape as you would expect from your everyday bar magnet. At Uranus, this is not the case; Uranus' field is highly asymmetric — and it becomes increasingly so closer to the planets’ surface."

[Mark17]

I was trying to read all this, but all I could think of, was that global warming must have caused it. 😀

[BenLurkin]

bttt

[Equine1952]

Glad I live out west, mine can roam about freely. Ain’t no traffic jams around here. 😊

[rktman]

Oh yeah? Ask pete. Anyway, could this be a dingleberry coriolos effect?

[Scrambler Bob]

When Joe found out about this, he tripled the Space Force budget.

[Dr. Franklin]

Maybe Uranus has a magnetic field, but not mine.

[diverteach]

Hmmm….probes around Uranus.

[LastDayz]

Ah man.... here we go.

[Dr. Franklin]

I thought this was a story about our transportation secretary

The Rats in government preach about individual choices and a right to privacy which is not explicitly menioned in the Bill of Rights. Then, they want to probe Uranus. There is a large contradiction there.

[noiseman]

All the political talk is really just filler to bide our time until the next Uranus thread comes along.

[dforest]

I was thinking the same ab. LOL

[TalBlack]

Just reading the title I judge that freepers are neither sophisticated nor mature enough to handle the subject matter.

[Disambiguator]

The jokesters are the astronomers who named all the planets after the Roman pantheon of gods, except for one, and they even misspelled it to make it more jokeworthy. Ouranos is the proper spelling.