'Spins faster than Earth': NASA's Hubble Telescope reveals Uranus' one day outpaces Earth by 7 hours
Produced by Abhinav Yadav
Produced by Abhinav Yadav
After 11 years of study using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, scientists now know how long a day lasts on Uranus. As per the latest study, a day on Uranus is longer than we thought and this new finding could help future space missions.
A day on Uranus lasts 17 hours, 14 minutes and 52 seconds. That’s 28 seconds longer than what NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft estimated back in 1986.
Voyager 2 gave a good estimate using Uranus’ magnetic field and radio signals. However, there was a 36-second margin of error, which grew with time. Soon, it became hard to track the planet’s exact rotation.
Researchers used Hubble Telescope data from 2011 to 2022 to build their case study. They also tracked auroras near Uranus’ magnetic poles. This helped them measure the planet’s spin with much higher accuracy.
The new estimate has an error margin of less than 0.04 seconds. It means the planet’s rotational system can now be tracked more precisely for decades ahead.
Future missions by NASA’s like Uranus Orbiter and Probe, will need accurate data to operate. This new time estimate will help scientists plan where and how to enter the planet’s atmosphere.
“Without years of Hubble observations, this would not be possible,” said lead researcher Laurent Lamy. Now, after nearly 40 years since Voyager 2, scientists can compare old and new data and look ahead to future exploration of this icy world.