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(Image credit: NASA/JPL)
Researchers might have fixed an enduring secret surrounding Uranus’extremely strong radiation belt.
A brand-new analysis of Voyager 2 information recommends that a short-lived area weather condition occasion might have made the world’s electron radiation belt more extreme than normal as Voyager 2 was going byThe findings might assist to discuss why the
radiation belt was a lot more powerful than researchers had actually forecasted it would be.
In January 1986, Voyager 2 zipped Uranus and determined the strength of its radiation belts. While the ion radiation belt was a little weaker than anticipated, the electron radiation belt was a lot more extreme than researchers had actually forecasted– near the optimum strength Uranus might sustain. Ever since, researchers have actually attempted to find out how and why this held true.
“Science has come a long way since the Voyager 2 flyby,” Robert Allenan area physicist at the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) and coauthor of the brand-new research study, stated in a declaration “We decided to take a comparative approach looking at the Voyager 2 data and compare it to Earth observations we’ve made in the decades since.”
Earth versus UranusIn the research study, released in November 2025 in the journal Geophysical Research LettersAllen and coworkers reviewed information gathered by Voyager 2 throughout its flyby of Uranus. They discovered numerous resemblances in between the Voyager information and the information gathered from Earth orbit throughout an area weather condition occasion in 2019.
Uranus’ abnormally extreme radiation belt might have been triggered by a “co-rotating interaction region,” the group discovered. A co-rotating interaction area takes place when high-speed solar winds surpass slower solar wind streams. The phenomenon might have sped up electrons and included energy to the radiation belt, the scientists stated.
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An illustration of the solar storm that might have activated the uncommon magnetic activity found on Uranus throughout Voyager’s flyby.
(Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)”In 2019, Earth experienced one of these events, which caused an immense amount of radiation belt electron acceleration,” stated research study co-author Sarah Vinesan area physicist at SwRI. “If a similar mechanism interacted with the Uranian system, it would explain why Voyager 2 saw all this unexpected additional energy.”If that’s the case, it raises a lot more concerns about the physics of Uranus’ magnetosphere and its interactions with the solar wind, consisting of the radiation belt’s stability throughout the severe seasons triggered by the world’s slanted axis of rotation. A spacecraft orbiting Uranus and gathering information from various parts of the magnetosphere might assist attend to those concerns, the scientists composed in the research study.
“This is just one more reason to send a mission targeting Uranus,” Allen stated in the declaration. “The findings have some important implications for similar systems, such as Neptune’s.”
Allen, R. C., Vines, S. K., & & Ho, G. C. (2025 ). Fixing the secret of the electron radiation belt at Uranus: leveraging understanding of Earth’s radiation belts in a Re‐Examination of Voyager 2 observations. Geophysical Research Letters52( 22 ). https://doi.org/10.1029/2025gl119311
Skyler Ware is a freelance science reporter covering chemistry, biology, paleontology and Earth science. She was a 2023 AAAS Mass Media Science and Engineering Fellow at Science News. Her work has actually likewise appeared in Science News Explores, ZME Science and Chembites, to name a few. Skyler has a Ph.D. in chemistry from Caltech.
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