Uranus: Magnetic Field And MagnetosphereIf the intrinsic magnetic field of Uranus had been nearly aligned with the rotational axis, as the planets previously visited were, the polar axis of the magnetosphere, or the polar cusp as it is called, would have been aligned with the solar wind flow as Voyager flew by the planet. Ironically, the magnetic axis of the intrinsic magnetic field of Uranus was far from spin axis-aligned, so that the solar wind blew nearly perpendicular to the magnetic axis, as it does at Mercury, Earth, Jupiter and Saturn. Thus, while Uranus has an unusual intrinsic magnetic field, the resulting magnetosphere was found to be very Earth-like.
by C. T. Russell and J. G. Luhmann
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New Uranus Image Captures Its Rings, MoonsThe picture shows the gaseous planet, its ring system and two of its satellites: Miranda is at the top-center of the photo; Ariel is at the bottom-left. Unlike other planets, Uranus is so far away that few good pictures of it have been taken.
by SPACE.com Staff
March 22 2002
pictureBirth of Uranus' Provocative Moon Still Puzzles ScientistsPlanetary geologist Bob Pappalardo of the University of Colorado at Boulder, who did his PhD thesis on the satellite, discovered the problems when he tried to understand how the coronae -- the formal name for Miranda's tortured bullseye patterns of ridges, grooves, and jumbled terrain -- could have formed by sinking blocks of the reassembled moon... [I]t looked as if the moon's crust had been ripped apart... And a close look at the ridges by Pappalardo and others indicated that some are actually icy volcanoes. Suddenly the whole picture changed. Instead of dense blocks sinking into the crust, Miranda's features seemed to be formed by something rising up from below.
by Andrew Chaikin
October 16, 2001