Page 46 - Astronomy - October 2017 USA

Geysers on Triton, furious storms on

Neptune, and a seemingly serene Uranus

that turned out to be a cosmic oddity.

by Korey Haynes

When Voyager 2 explored Uranus
in 1986, it found a bland, bluish
world with little contrast. But
the flyby occurred in the dead
of summer when direct sunlight
suppresses cloud formation. A
decade later, Hubble began to
reveal bright clouds. NASA/JPL-CALTECH

A for the first time. As Voyager 1 planet. The secrets that Voyager teased out the sequencing teams for Uranus and
fter visiting Saturn, the twin
Voyagers parted ways substantially
Neptune. The group determined exactly
remain the most up-close views that scien-
tists have to work with.
when Voyager’s instruments should take
raced out of the solar system,
data in order to return the information the
Voyager 2 struck out on its
Voyager 2 flew past Uranus on January 24,
own toward the last two unvisited giant Big blue nothing science team wanted. This meant under-
standing in minute detail how the planets
planets: Uranus and Neptune. Smaller 1986, more than four years after the probe and their moons moved. The sequencing
and more distant than Jupiter and Saturn, visited Saturn. Following the excitement team orchestrated the various instruments
these ice giant worlds were better hidden at that ringed world (and Jupiter before it), to use every second of the precious flyby
from Earth’s prying telescopic eyes, and scientists were eager to see what Voyager windows to image the most valuable tar-
therefore more mysterious. And, to some would reveal at the more distant and enig- gets: the limb or edge of the planets, the
extent, they remain so. No spacecraft since matic uranian system. terminators where day and night meet, the
Voyager has visited them, and there are Suzy Dodd, the project manager for moons in their orbits, and the planets’ own
no missions currently scheduled to either Voyager’s interstellar mission, worked on broad faces.
46 ASTRONOMY • OCTOBER 2017