Tag Archives: belts

Scientists Might Have Unraveled the Mystery of Uranus’ Radiation Belts

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In 1986, NASA’s Voyager 2 conducted the sole direct measurement of Uranus’ radiation environment. These findings revealed a well-recognized system characterized by a weak ion emission band and an unexpectedly strong electron emission band. Nevertheless, these observations might not have been taken under standard conditions. A recent study by scientists at the Southwest Research Institute compared Voyager 2’s data with comparable phenomena on Earth. Their findings, in conjunction with a new interpretation of the Voyager 2 flyby, suggest that the interaction of solar wind with Uranus’ magnetosphere may have amplified electromagnetic waves, enabling electrons to reach relativistic speeds. This opens new avenues for exploration at Uranus and emphasizes the necessity for missions orbiting the planet.

Allen et al. The researchers compared the effects on space weather of the high-speed solar wind structures that caused intense solar storms on Earth in 2019 (first panel) (second panel) with conditions observed on Uranus by Voyager 2 in 1986 (third panel), revealing a potential solution to a 39-year-old mystery regarding the extreme radiation belts discovered. Image credit: SwRI.

In 1986, during its unique flyby of Uranus, Voyager 2 recorded unexpectedly high levels of electron emission bands.

These electron emission belts were surprising, based on extrapolations from other planetary systems.

Since then, scientists have puzzled over how Uranus could maintain such a tightly constrained electron emission belt, making it distinct from other planets in the solar system.

Robert Allen and his colleagues from the Southwest Research Institute hypothesize that the observations made by Voyager 2 might closely resemble processes occurring on Earth due to significant solar wind storms.

They propose that a solar wind structure, known as a corotating interaction region, was traversing the Uranus system at that time.

This accounts for the exceptionally high energy levels detected by Voyager 2.

“Science has progressed significantly since Voyager 2’s flyby,” stated Dr. Allen.

“We aimed to analyze the Voyager 2 data in relation to Earth observations gathered in the years that followed.”

A recent study indicates that during Voyager 2’s mission, the Uranian system may have undergone a space weather event that triggered powerful radio frequency waves—the most intense recorded throughout Voyager 2’s journey.

“In 1986, scientists believed these waves would dissipate and scatter the electrons within Uranus’ atmosphere,” Dr. Allen noted.

“However, they have come to understand that under specific conditions, these same waves can accelerate electrons and contribute additional energy to the planetary system.”

“In 2019, Earth experienced a similar event that resulted in a significant acceleration of radiation belt electrons,” said Sarah Vines from the Southwest Research Institute.

“If a comparable mechanism interacted with the Uranus system, it would explain the unexpected additional energy observed by Voyager 2.”

Nonetheless, these revelations also raise numerous questions regarding the fundamental physics and the sequence of events that allow the emission of such powerful waves.

“This underscores the importance of launching a mission focused on Uranus,” Dr. Allen emphasized.

“This discovery also holds significant implications for analogous star systems like Neptune.”

The results are published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.

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RC Allen et al. 2025. Unraveling the mystery of Uranus’ electron radiation belts: Using insights from Earth’s radiation belts to reassess Voyager 2 observations. Geophysical Research Letters 52 (22): e2025GL119311; doi: 10.1029/2025GL119311

Source: www.sci.news

Research lab identifies meteorites linked to specific asteroid with 75 main belts.

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Astronomers from SETI Institute, NASA’s Ames Research Center, and Curtin University have tracked the impact orbits of 75 observed metstone waterfalls to previously unidentified source regions of several of the main asteroid belt.

Impressions of an artist on a rocky asteroid. Image credits: Mark A. Garlick, Space-Art.co.uk / Warwick University / Cambridge University.

“This is a 10-year detective story, with each recorded metstone waterfall providing new clues,” said Dr. Peter Jenniskens, an astronomer at Seti Institute and NASA’s Ames Research Center.

“We currently have the first overview of the asteroid belt geological map.”

Ten years ago, Dr. Jenniskens and his colleagues were aiming to build a network of all ski cameras in California and Nevada.

“Others built similar networks that spanned the world, and together formed a fireball observatory around the world,” said Hadrian Devillepova, an astronomer at Curtin University.

“For many years, we have tracked the routes of 17 recovered metstone waterfalls.”

“More fireballs have been tracked by doorbells and dashcam video cameras from citizen scientists and other dedicated networks around the world.”

“Overall, this quest produced 75 laboratory classified metstones with impact trajectories tracked by video cameras and photo cameras,” Dr. Jennis Kens said.

“It has proven sufficient to start seeing some patterns in the direction of metstones approaching the Earth.”

Most metstones come from the asteroid belt, the region between Mars and Jupiter.

These rocks come from a few larger asteroids that have been broken in the collision.

Even today, asteroids collide and create remnant fields within these asteroid families known as clusters.

“We can see that the 12 metstones (h-cartilage) of ordinary chondrites, which are now rich in iron, come from a debris field called low colonies on the pristine main belt,” Dr. Jennis Kens said.

“These metstones arrived from low-coupled orbital periods that match this debris field.”

“By measuring the age of cosmic ray exposure in metstones, we can determine that three of these 12 metstones originate from kalin clasters of dynamic ages of 5.8 million years, and two come from Koronis2 clusters of dynamic ages of 100-15 million years.”

“Another metstone can measure the age of Koronis3 clusters, about 83 million years.”

The authors also discovered a group of H-chondrites on steep orbits that appear to originate from the Nere Asteroididae in the central main belt, with a dynamic age of approximately 6 million years.

The mean motion resonance with nearby 3:1 Jupiter can raise the slope to the observed people.

A third group of H cartilage with an exposure age of approximately 35 million years of age emerged from the medial main belt.

“In our opinion, these H-cartilages came from the low masalia asteroids on the inner main belt, as their families have clusters of that same dynamic era,” Dr. Jennis Kens said.

“Asteroid (20) Masalia, the asteroid that created the cluster, is a parent body of the H-chondrite type.”

Researchers have discovered that low iron (l cartilage) and very low iron (LL chondrite) metstones mainly come from the inner main belt.

“I propose that L cartilage comes from the Hertha Asteroid family, just above the Masalia family,” Dr. Jennis Kens said.

“The asteroid Elsa doesn’t look like its fragments. Hertha is covered in dark rocks of shock black, which exhibits unusually violent collisions. The L-chondrites experienced a very violent origin 468 million years ago, when these metstones bombarded the Earth with numbers found in geological records.”

Knowing from the remains of the asteroid belt, the birth of our metstones is important for our planetary defense efforts against asteroids on the near Earth.

The orbits of approaching asteroids can provide clues to the origin of the asteroid belt, just like the metstone orbit.

“Asteroids near Earth do not arrive in the same orbit as Metstones because it takes time for them to evolve into Earth,” Dr. Jennis Kens said.

“But they come from some of the same Astide family.”

Team’s paper Published in the journal Weather and Planetary Science.

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Peter Jenniskens & Hadrien ar Devillepoix. Asteroids, meteors, and meteor-shaped link reviews. Weather and Planetary SciencePublished online on March 17th, 2025. doi:10.1111/maps.14321

Source: www.sci.news

JUICE captures unprecedented image of Earth’s radiation belts

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In August 2024, ESA’s Jupiter ICy satellite probe (JUICE) made history with its daring Moon-to-Earth flight and double-gravity assisted maneuver. When the spacecraft passed the moon and the home planet, NASA’s Jupiter’s energetic neutrons and ions The (JENI) instrument aboard JUICE has captured the clearest images yet of Earth’s radiation belts, belts of charged particles trapped in Earth’s magnetosphere.

The center of this infographic shows the clearest image yet of a cloud of charged particles trapped in Earth’s magnetic field, and the inset shows high-energy images detected along JUICE’s flight path. Measurements of ions and electrons are shown. Image credit: ESA / NASA / Johns Hopkins APL / Josh Diaz.

“The moment we saw the clear new image, the whole room erupted in high-fives,” said Dr. Matina Goukiuridou, JENI deputy director at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory.

“It was clear that we had captured the giant ring of hot plasma surrounding Earth in unprecedented detail, and this result has sparked excitement about what’s to come on Jupiter.”

Unlike traditional cameras that rely on light, JENI uses special sensors to capture high-energy neutral atoms emitted by charged particles that interact with hydrogen gas in the widespread atmosphere surrounding Earth. Masu.

The JENI instrument is the latest generation of this type of camera and builds on the success of similar instruments in NASA’s Cassini mission, which revealed the magnetospheres of Saturn and Jupiter.

August 19th, JENI and its companion particle measuring instrument Jupiter’s energetic electrons (JoEE) made the most of his brief 30-minute encounter with the moon.

As JUICE zoomed just 750 km (465 miles) above the lunar surface, the instrument collected data about the space environment and its interactions with our closest celestial companion star.

Scientists expect this interaction to be magnified and observed on Jupiter’s moons as the gas giant’s radiation-rich magnetosphere passes over them.

On August 20, JUICE entered Earth’s magnetosphere, passing approximately 60,000 km (37,000 miles) over the Pacific Ocean. There, the instruments experienced for the first time the harsh environment that awaits them on Jupiter.

As JoEE and JENI raced through the magnetic tail, they encountered the dense, low-energy plasma typical of the region before plunging into the heart of the radiation belt.

There, instruments measured the millions of degrees of plasma surrounding Earth to investigate the secrets of plasma heating, which is known to drive dramatic phenomena in planetary magnetospheres.

“We couldn’t have expected a better flyby,” said Dr. Pontus Brandt, principal investigator for JoEE and JENI at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory.

“The wealth of data we have obtained from our deep dive into the magnetosphere is amazing. JENI’s image of the entire system that we just flew was simply the best.”

“This is a powerful combination to leverage in the Jupiter system.”

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This article has been adapted from the original release by NASA.

Source: www.sci.news