New study on moons of Uranus raises chance of life

BBC ^ | 11/11/2024 | Pallab Ghosh

[BenLurkin]

The planet Uranus and its five biggest moons may not be the dead sterile worlds that scientists have long thought.

Instead, they may have oceans, and the moons may even be capable of supporting life, scientists say.

Much of what we know about them was gathered by Nasa’s Voyager 2 spacecraft... flew past and sent back sensational pictures of the planet and its five major moons.

But what amazed scientists even more was the data Voyager 2 sent back indicating that the Uranian system was even weirder than they thought.

The measurements from the spacecraft’s instruments indicated that the planets and moons were inactive, unlike the other moons in the outer solar system. They also showed that Uranus’s protective magnetic field was strangely distorted. It was squashed and pushed away from the Sun.

A planet’s magnetic field traps any gases and other material coming off the planet and its moons. These might be from oceans or geological activity. Voyager 2 found none, suggesting that Uranus and its five largest moons were sterile and inactive.

This came as an enormous surprise because it was unlike the solar system’s other planets and their moons

But a new analysis shows that Voyager's visit coincided with a powerful solar storm, which led to a misleading idea of what the Uranian system is really like.

...

Nasa has plans to launch a new mission, the Uranus Orbiter and Probe, to go back for a closer look...

Nasa’s Uranus probe is expected to arrive by 2045, which is when scientists hope to find out whether these far-flung icy moons, once thought of as being dead worlds, might have the possibility of being home to life.

[Rastus]

No peace until Pluto is redeclared a planet. Screw NDT.

[heavy metal]

kim kardashian already proved that...

[rexthecat]

You don't need to look in Uranus for aliens..

[Getready]

Speculative b.s.
Darwin opined that life started “in some warm little pond”...Uranus and it’s 5 moons average temp is -320 fahrenheit...they don’t even know if there are underground oceans of water there....their initial assessment of the planet was messed up by space anomalies?
Wait till 2045 for mission to get there?
By then the earth will have frozen because we will have blocked the sun from hitting the earth, and our C02 levels will have dropped to near zero and Greta Thunberg will be energy czar to try and heat up the planet.
...and now for the obligatory puns...
“I thought there was only one moon associated with Uranus.”

[one guy in new jersey]

what are you, two, lol

[one guy in new jersey]

what he said

[MNJohnnie]

Might want to bring some mittens too

[glennaro]

Yeah. I've heard all the jokes about poor Uranus's name ... and I find it to be annoying and trivial. Especially when taking into consideration that any civilization that may have once existed on Uranus would indeed suffer the societal pain of living on a turd-world planet.
(OK ... now back to work ...)

[Blurb2350]

I still remember this joke from junior high:
Q: How is the Starship Enterprise like a roll of TP?
A: They both orbit Uranus wiping out Klingons.

[SkyDancer]

And the temperature on those moons is what exactly? Plus atmosphere?

[SkyDancer]

But yet the unborn children are just what(?) according to justice Sotomayor?

[yelostar]

[gundog]

[Vendome]

Just here for the jokes...

[Army Air Corps]

The Cornholio series of probes will help find the answer.

[LastDayz]

Sooooo..... Uranus has dingleberries. Who’d a thunked it.

[mazz44]

Another avenue for Grift. What a novel idea? BS!

[rightwingcrazy]

I’m with you on that one. I’m been in a cranky mood ever since they pulled that stunt.

[Rastus]

Kids love Pluto. They want nothing to do with astronomy now.

This is not necessarily a factual statement, but it feels true.

[Carl Vehse]

“The results are fascinating, and I am really excited to see that there is potential for life in the Uranian system,” [Voyager missions project scientist Linda Spilker] told BBC News."

Most of the moons of Uranus have a diameter of less than 100 mi.and are non-spheroidal. Five moons of Uranus, including Miranda, have diameters between 300 and 1,000 miles, which is less than one-third the diameter of the large moons of Jupiter, and less than one-half the diameter of our moon.

As for the BBC article, it's filled with the usual ambiguous phrases:

may
may have
may even (2 times)
could be
could have
might be
might have (3 times)
possible
possibly
suggest

This "chance of life" article's spiel is simply hype for funds to launch a new mission, the Uranus Orbiter and Probe, to the Uranus moons. While exploring the solar system will lead to new discoveries, there's no indication that extraterrestrial life will be one of them.