The realization that there may be more happening in the Uranus system than previously believed came via the discovery of strange features in radiation data collected by NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft as it passed the planet almost four decades ago.
The new findings, concerning the moons Ariel and Miranda, also support the idea that Uranus' five largest satellites could have subsurface oceans, a notion suggested by Voyager 2 flyby observations.
The newly reported observations of Voyager 2 — currently the only spacecraft to have visited Uranus — showed that one or two of the ice giant's 27 known moons are adding plasma particles into the Uranus system. This detection came in the form of "trapped" energetic particles the spacecraft spotted as it departed the ice giant.
The mechanism by which Miranda and/or Ariel may be doing this is currently unknown, but there is one very tantalizing possible cause: One or both of the icy moons may possess a liquid ocean beneath their frozen surface that's actively blasting plumes of material into space.
Similar particle-releasing moons exist around Uranus' fellow solar system ice giant Neptune and the gas giants Jupiter and Saturn. In the case of the Jupiter moon Europa and Saturn's Enceladus, it was the examination of particle and magnetic field data that provided the first hints that these are ocean moons.
Source: www.space.com
No comments:
Post a Comment