There are X-rays coming from Uranus

bgrpro65 mars 31, 2021

Uranus is big, cold, and mysterious. As the second-furthest planet from the Sun, it's rather difficult for researchers here on Earth to study it without sending spacecraft to get a closer look. The only probe to ever make a relatively close flyby of the planet was Voyager 2, and that was over three decades ago. Recently, data beamed back to Earth from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory — a large space telescope that was launched 21 years ago — has helped scientists learn a bit more about the frozen planet.

Using the telescope, which as its name implies is designed to detect X-ray emissions, researchers were able to spot X-ray emissions coming from the planet for the first time. It might sound crazy to think that data gathered back in 2002 was only recently analyzed, but scientists are busy people, and when they finally began comparing images taken from 2002 to 2017 they found clear indications that Uranus was beaming X-rays into space.