Did a day on Uranus just get 28 seconds longer?

Cape Canaveral: Scientists have now confirmed that Uranus takes exactly 17 hours, 14 minutes and 52 seconds to complete one full rotation, based on observations by the Hubble Space Telescope. This updated figure is 28 seconds longer than previous estimates made by NASA’s Voyager 2 spacecraft in the 1980s.

The new measurement comes from a French-led team that studied over a decade’s worth of aurora observations to monitor Uranus’ magnetic poles. Their work enabled a more precise calculation of the planet’s rotation period.

“The continuous observations from Hubble were crucial,” said Laurent Lamy of the Paris Observatory, the lead author of the study.

A new method for distant worlds

According to Lamy and his international team, this technique can be applied to other celestial bodies with auroras and magnetospheres, offering a reliable way to determine their rotation periods.

Uranus, the seventh planet from the sun, takes about 84 Earth years to complete one orbit around the sun. Its peculiar tilt and icy atmosphere make it one of the most mysterious planets in our solar system.

Timely discovery ahead of Hubble milestone

The findings, published in the journal Nature Astronomy, arrive just weeks before the 35th anniversary of Hubble's launch. The space telescope was delivered into orbit by NASA's space shuttle Discovery on 24 April 1990.

AP