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Friday, June 23, 2017

You Just Can't Make This Stuff Up

NASA wants to probe Uranus in search of gas

We hear a lot about Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn, and that’s because we have extremely fancy hardware floating around and, in some cases, cruising on the surface of those planets. The planets that lie further away from the Sun don’t get nearly as much attention, but they may soon, as NASA is currently spitballing some missions that will give us a better look at Uranus than we’ve ever gotten.


The theoretical missions, which would see NASA spacecraft heading to both Uranus and Neptune, would be of huge scientific benefit. The idea is to determine what the planets are made of, get an idea of the atmospheric composition, and take lots of fantastic photographs, too. Researchers hope to study the weather and overall climate of the planets, while determining how they fit into the overall makeup of our Solar System.

Both Uranus and Neptune still hold many secrets yet to be revealed, and the proposed missions would include both flybys and an orbiter that would send an atmospheric probe to Uranus in order to sample its gasses and detect elements. A similar option exists for Neptune, though the actual details of the mission(s) would need to be fully fleshed out before it comes anywhere near a formal proposal.

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7 comments:

Anonymous said...

There is a lot of it in Washington DC.

Anonymous said...

LOL! you thought it took a long time to get that Keystone pipeline approved! How about THIS pipeline, LOL!

Anonymous said...

It's flat
Look into it!

Anonymous said...

STOP wasting MY money!!!

Anonymous said...

11:02

Basic science is not a waste of money

Think landing astronauts on the moon was a waste of money?

The dividends from the Apollo program are so huge they can't be calculated

Anonymous said...

828
Hilarious.

Do you still believe that Fairy Tale about Apollo 11?

I am rolling on the floor with laughter!
That is a good one.

Anonymous said...

8:28
Shut the front door!
Are you serious?

I'm with 10:04 on this one.
Just cleaned the floor with my shirt!

LOL
LOL
LOL
LOL
LOL