News Planetary Science

Uranus may have looked weird when NASA’s Voyager 2 flew by

A solar wind event just days earlier may have compressed the giant planet’s magnetosphere

A blue planet surrounded by white rings

When Voyager 2 flew by Uranus (shown here in a false-color infrared image), the probe detected a strange magnetic environment around the planet. That may have been a fluke of timing.

NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI

By Lisa Grossman

Some of Uranus’ apparent oddities might be due to bad timing.

In 1986, the Voyager 2 spacecraft flew past the planet, recording mysteries of its magnetic field.