How long is a day on Uranus? Slightly longer than we thought, it seems

A day in Uranus has been slightly longer, thanks to more accurate measurements of its rotation period, scientists should help to plan a huge gas missions.

Representing the period of the rotation of the huge planets of the solar system is more difficult than the likelihood of Mars and Earth because the hard wind storms are impossible for direct measurements.

The first measurement of Uranus rotation was closest to January 24, 1986. The researchers determined at the time that the magnetic field of the planet charged around 59 degrees north of Celestial, and its rotation axis was 98 degrees.

These extreme compensation mean that Uranus rotates the “lying” compared to the Earth, and its magnetic poles have a great circle as the planet rotates. In the emission of the magnetic field of the planet and the emissions of the Aurora, at the time, Uranus found that it formed a complete rotation for 17 minutes, 14 minutes.

Now, Laurent Lamy At the French Paris Observatory and his colleagues have measured 28 seconds. More importantly, their measurement is 1000 times more accurate, reducing the margin of the mistake to a part of the second.

Researchers analyzed images of Uranus Ultraviolet Aurora, between the 2011 and 2022 Hubble Space telescope to continue the long-term evolution of the magnetic poles of the planet, while rounding the rotation axis.

The previous measurement margins became impossible to accurately determine the position of Uranus more than a few years later, but the new measurement would serve for decades. This means that there could be confidence in calculating critical mission goals, such as a probe can be compromised and into the atmosphere of the planet.

Timed The Australian University of Sydney is called “very fast” measurement technique, but the new duration of a day of Uranus is not so different, it is within the margin of the mistake of the old calculation. “It doesn’t change so much,” says beds. “Now it can be quite more accurate.”