By Derek Smith, Originally published by Michigan Engineering News
The new analysis of the Voyager 2 data revealed that the odd magnetic field was caused by a rare event. Just before the spacecraft reached Uranus, the planet’s magnetic field had likely been squashed by a jet of unusually dense solar wind, as evidenced by a steady increase in solar wind pressure leading up to Voyager 2’s encounter with Uranus. The pounding likely compressed the electrons inside Uranus’s magnetic field into the radiation belts while other charged particles were squeezed out, like juice from a lemon.