Scientists had a misconception about Uranus for almost 40 years: what made them change their minds

During this time, research on the planet was based on information received from NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft.

For almost 40 years, scientists had a misconception about the seventh planet of the solar system, Uranus. This became possible due to a unique cosmic phenomenon that coincided with the flight of NASA's Voyager 2 probe in 1986.

This is stated in the ScienceAlert article.

For the first and last time, the spacecraft flew within 80,000 km of Uranus, collecting data that greatly influenced our understanding of this planet. However, a new study indicates that previously obtained data were distorted.

“The scientific picture of Uranus that we have from the Voyager 2 flyby is that it has an extreme magnetospheric environment. But I've always thought that maybe Voyager 2's flyby of Uranus just happened during some weird activity,” said space plasma physicist Jamie…