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In 1986, NASA’s Voyager 2 offered the only direct measurement of the radiation environment at Uranus. These findings developed the well-accepted characterization of a system with a weaker ion radiation belt and remarkably extreme electron radiation belt. These observations might not have actually happened throughout regular conditions. In a brand-new research study, Southwest Research Institute researchers compared the Voyager 2 observations to a comparable occasion observed at Earth. Their technique, in addition to a current reinterpretation of the Voyager 2 flyby, recommends that interaction in between the solar wind and magnetosphere of Uranus might have led to boosted electro-magnetic waves efficient in speeding up electrons to relativistic energies. This encourages brand-new, more extensive concerns to be checked out at Uranus and highlights the requirement for a Uranus orbiter objective.
Allen et alcompared area weather condition effects of a quick solar wind structure (very first panel) driving an extreme solar storm at Earth in 2019 (2nd panel)with conditions observed at Uranus by Voyager 2 in 1986 (3rd panel)to possibly resolve a 39-year-old secret about the severe radiation belts discovered. Image credit: SwRI.
In 1986, when Voyager 2 made the very first and just flyby of Uranus, it determined a remarkably strong electron radiation belt at considerably greater levels than expected.
Based upon projections from other planetary systems, Uranus’ electron radiation belt was off the charts.
Ever since, researchers have actually questioned how the Uranian system might support such an extreme caught electron radiation belt, at a world unlike anything else in the Solar System.
Based upon brand-new analyses, Southwest Research Institute researcher Robert Allen and his associates think that Voyager 2 observations might have more in typical with procedures at Earth driven by big solar wind storms.
They believe a solar wind structure– referred to as a co-rotating interaction area– was most likely going through the Uranian system.
This might describe the severe energy levels Voyager 2 observed.
“Science has actually come a long method because the Voyager 2 flyby,” Dr. Allen stated.
“We chose to take a relative technique taking a look at the Voyager 2 information and compare it to Earth observations we’ve made in the years given that.”
The brand-new research study suggests that the Uranian system might have experienced an area weather condition occasion throughout the Voyager 2 see that resulted in effective high-frequency waves, the most extreme observed over the totality of the Voyager 2 objective.
“In 1986, researchers believed that these waves would spread electrons to be lost to Uranus’ environment,” Dr. Allen stated.
“But ever since, they have actually found out that those very same waves under specific conditions can likewise speed up electrons and feed extra energy into planetary systems.”
“In 2019, Earth experienced among these occasions, which triggered a tremendous quantity of radiation belt electron velocity,” stated Southwest Research Institute researcher Sarah Vines.
“If a comparable system connected with the Uranian system, it would describe why Voyager 2 saw all this unanticipated extra energy.”
These findings likewise raise a lot of extra concerns about the essential physics and series of occasions that would allow these extreme wave emissions.
“This is simply another factor to send out an objective targeting Uranus,” Dr. Allen stated.
“The findings have some essential ramifications for comparable systems, such as Neptune’s.”
The outcomes appear in the journal Geophysical Research Letters
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R.C. Allen et al2025. Fixing the Mystery of the Electron Radiation Belt at Uranus: Leveraging Knowledge of Earth’s Radiation Belts in a Re-Examination of Voyager 2 Observations. Geophysical Research Letters 52 (22 ): e2025GL119311; doi: 10.1029/ 2025GL119311
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