Voyager 2's fly-by of Uranus in 1986 detected that its radiation belt was weaker than expected.
Uranus's mysteriously asymmetrical and skewed magnetic field has long confounded astronomers—until now.When the Voyager 2 spacecraft zipped past Uranus in 1986, it noticed that the huge gas giant's magnetic field was tilted 60 degrees away from the axis of its spin, resulting in the field being asymmetrical in strength.
We suggest that this could be explained by the unique magnetic field structure causing variations in the speed at which particles drift around the planet,' the researchers wrote in the paper.Using the Boris algorithm, which is often used to simulate how particles move in a magnetic field, the researchers modeled how Uranus's asymmetrical field would affect its radiation belt.
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