Uranus, the weird planet, is Belching X-Rays

The more that scientists study Uranus, the weirder it gets. The X-rays from the strange world have been detected by astronomers, and while some of the signals may be reflected emissions from the sun. According to a NASA statement, these appear to be coming from the planet itself.

According to the new research, Uranus’s analyzed observations are gathered by NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory in 2002 and 2017. Everything in the solar system, from Venus to Saturn to Jupiter’s moons, emit X-rays, which is what a paper describing the research says. In fact, only a few studied Uranus and Neptune missing from the list among the solar system’s planets.

Because of the alignment jumble of the planet, Uranus attracted a team of astronomers to study it. The planet lies on the side, and its axis of the magnetic field is akimbo from both the spin axis and the orbital plane. The skewed axes may trigger the particular auroras that emit X-rays. The scientists decided to dig into the scant Chandra observations of Uranus.

It has three parts of data in it, one from August 2002 and two from November 2017. Both the observations also come from the different instruments on the telescope. The data from 2017 does not clearly show the X-rays that come from the planet itself and from elsewhere in the detector’s view.

This usually means that the scientists want more observations. However, researchers say that both patches of data appear to show X-ray emissions from the strange planet.