Scientists claim there could be life in our solar system after discovery on Uranus moons in NASA breakthrough
Scientists have claimed that there could be extraterrestrial life after there was a NASA breakthrough.
A new discovery on the moons of Uranus might change everything we think we know about life in our solar system.
New research has revealed that a previous study of the planet might have been distorted by extreme space weather.
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A powerful solar storm likely impacted the data collected by the Voyager 2 when it flew by Uranus in 1986.
Since then, experts have believed that the planet and its five moons were lifeless and inactive.
However, that may have all been false.
Dr William Dunn, who works at the Department of Physics and Astronomy at University College London, said: “Almost everything we know about Uranus is based on Voyager 2's two-day flyby.
“This new study shows that a lot of the planet's bizarre behavior can be explained by the scale of the space weather event that occurred during that visit.”
He went on to say: “We now know even less than we thought about what a typical day in the Uranian system might look like.”
But according to a new study, it looks like Uranus might be a lot more active than we thought.
Unbelievably, there could even be oceans underneath its moons’ surfaces.
Dunn said: “A big piece of evidence against there being oceans on Uranus's moons was the lack of detection of any water-related particles around the planet – Voyager 2 didn't find water ions.
“But now we can explain that: the solar storm basically would have blown all that material away.”
Now, NASA is working on a new mission to the planet which is called the Uranus Orbiter and Probe.
It’s hoped that the mission will launch within the next 10 years but won’t arrive until 2045.
Dr Linda Spilker, who worked on the original Voyager 2 mission at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said: “The magnetosphere Voyager 2 measured was only a snapshot in time.
“This new work explains some of the apparent contradictions, and it will change our view of Uranus once again.”
If oceans are found underneath Uranus’ moons, that could open up a whole host of possibilities in the search for life outside of Earth.
Dunn added: “These results suggest that the Uranian system could be much more exciting than previously thought.
“There could be moons there that could have the conditions that are necessary for life, they might have oceans that below the surface that could be teeming with fish!”