The dawn of space travel has seen humans expand their intrigue into planets such as Mercury, Venus, Mars, Saturn, and Jupiter with dedicated probes. Albeit, Uranus has sadly been neglected.
The ice giants Uranus and Neptune, in the distant reaches of the Solar System, have not had a single dedicated visitor as yet.
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 titled, ‘Origins, Worlds, and Life’, is an important once-a-decade survey prepared by the US National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine at the behest of NASA to identify the most important scientific targets of the coming decade.
The report elaborated that the probe 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 spell billions of dollars, but the potential scientific gain would be priceless, the Science Alert news reported.
