Scientists find new moons around Neptune and Uranus
USA TodayFEB 25 2024
Study Reconsiders Possibility of Life on Uranus Moons
Above: Mosaic image of Miranda, innermost of Uranus' large satellites. Taken by the Voyager 2 in 1986. Image copyright: Contributor/Corbis Historical via Getty Images
The Facts
According to a new study, NASA's 1986 Voyager 2 flyby provided only a temporary understanding of Uranus’s magnetosphere. Back then, it revealed an unusually tilted and off-centered magnetic field, which has since been considered one of the most extreme in the solar system.
However, a recent re-examination of the Voyager images suggests that Uranus’ magnetosphere was in a rare, compressed state due to unusually high solar wind pressure — a condition that occurs less than 5% of the time.
The researchers believe there are "two magnetospheric cycles during solar minimum," one due to the planet's "extreme dipole tilt and obliquity," and the other from "quasiperiodically varying solar wind conditions." They suggest Uranus' two outermost major moons, Titania and Oberon, "orbit outside the magnetopause."
The Spin
Narrative A
This is tremendous news for those who wish to find life-sustaining environments on other planets. After 40 years of questions, we may finally learn that Uranus is not a barren ball of ice but rather the source of massive amounts of water.
Narrative B
While these discoveries are remarkable, let's not forget that discovering life on Uranus’ moons is unlikely due to the extreme cold climate, limited tidal heating, and the potential saltiness of subsurface oceans. This makes chemical energy for life hard to access without solar warmth.