Scientists plan to send probe to Uranus for first time

Washington: Uranus has been sadly neglected. Probes have visited Mars, Venus, Saturn, Jupiter, and Mercury. The ice giants Uranus and Neptune, in the distant reaches of the Solar System, have not had a single dedicated visitor.

In a new report laying out the top priorities for planetary science and astrobiology, a panel of experts from the US National Academies advises that this omission be rectified. For initiation within the next decade, the committee put a Uranus probe at top priority as the next planetary flagship mission.

The report is titled Origins, Worlds, and Life: A Decadal Strategy for Planetary Science and Astrobiology 2023–2032, an important once-a-decade survey prepared by the US National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine at the request of NASA, to identify the most important scientific targets of the coming decade.

This probe, the report elaborated, would perform a multi-year orbital tour of Uranus, probing its atmosphere. The mission would provide an unprecedented wealth of information on ice giants in general, and Uranus and its moons in particular – one of the most intriguing and mysterious major objects in the Solar System.

Uranus is considered the only planet in the Solar System that has been tipped sideways, so that its rotational axis is almost parallel to the orbital plane. The plane also emits mysterious X-rays, among many other mysteries which makes Uranus in need of significant investigation.

The cost of a mission to Uranus could be over USD 4 million, but the potential scientific gain would be priceless, the Science Alert news reported.