Laurent Lamy, an astronomer at the Observatoire de Paris in Meudon, France, said the last time a signal of aurora on Uranus is when the NASA space probe Voyager 2 Uranus around 1986.
"But this is the first time we can really see the light that shines on Earth-based telescopes," Lamy said as quoted by National Geographic, Friday (04/13/2012).
Aurora is a light that is often seen in the high latitudes of the Earth, Jupiter and Saturn. Aurora is formed when the solar storms a planet and the magnetosphere of the planet beribnteraksi reach.
Auroras occur at the poles of a planet. When a charged particle interaction with the Magenta field and the particles are thrown into the atmosphere. There, the charged particles colliding with air in order to form the light.
Astronomers have tried to detect the presence of aurorae on Uranus in 1998 and 2005, but failed.
In September of 2011, Larry and his team are studying the solar storms that led to Uranus, the planet more or less within 4 muiliar miles from Earth. Scientists deliberately, so that observations with the Hubble telescope set up in conjunction with the storm the sun. 6 The following week, a team of scientists managed to observe the aurora of Uranus.
"We are very lucky to catch a flash of light is dimmed," said Lamy.
Astronomers said the aurora of Uranus is unique. This refers to oroentasi planet.
In contrast to the other seven planets to the magnetic axis of Uranus is 60 degrees from the axis of rotation. Meanwhile, the axis of rotation 98 degrees with respect to the orientation of the path of the solar energy system. In other words, such as Uranus rotates with the shaft side.
Aurora on Uranus have very short life. According to Lamy, is associated with differences in the orientation of charged particles from the sun and the planet's magnetic field is not normal.
"Aurora offers a key to the exact location of the magnetic axis, which will allow us to know which part of an active magnetosphere," said Lamy.
"There is no doubt that Uranus is a mysterious planet. We just do not know too much about the planet, especially magnetosfernya, but slowly we are going to reveal his secret," Lamy added.
Lamy said the need for further observations of Uranus. Lamy observations published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.
