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PASADENA, Calif. (AP) — Geologists are baffled by the cataclysmic forces that created towering cliffs and ridges, broad valleys and deep canyons on Uranus’ major moons, especially Miranda, which has the most complex land s seen in the solar system. “During the time these moons were being formed, there were severe disturbing forces taking place,” said Ellis Miner, deputy pro ne scientist for the exploration of rains by the Voyager 2 spacecraft, which took stunning pictures of the planet's five largest moons. “We're seeing on the faces of these moons, Mira in particular, the evidence for those strong forces,”’ he said Sunday at Jet Poe gene Labo ratory. ‘‘However, that still doesn’t give us much of a clue as what caus ed the forces.”’ Over the weekend, information sent to Earth from Voyager's closest approach to Uranus revealed 10 arcs, or ring fragments — hints that another 10 may encircle the planet in addition to the nine discovered from Earth and a 10th discovered by Voyager. Today, Voyager was more than 2 million miles from Uranus, speeding away at more than 33,000 mph as it head toward its 1989 encounter with Neptune, the eighth planet from the sun. During its closest encounter with Uranus, Voyager came within 50,679 miles of the planet, which is 1.84 billion miles from Earth. The existence of large bands of dust among the rings was confirmed for the first time Sunday when wae returned a picture of the backlit by the sun. probe also transmitted evi dence that a vast, gaseous belt of 500-million-degree, electrically the particles, any plasma, is rain space by Uranus’ mag sett fields,” ‘somes like the 100- million-degree Van Allen radiation belts around Earth. Scientists were most excited by incredible closeups of the five largest of Uranus’ 15 known moons. Voyager discovered the 10 smallest moons, while the five biggest were discovered by Earth telscopes. From the outermost moon, they are Oberon and Titania, each about 1,000 miles in diameter; Umbriel, 690 miles; Ariel, 825 miles; and Miran da, 310 miles. Geologists didn’t have too much trouble explaining that lunar craters came from meteroid impacts and that material in some valleys on Ariel appeared to be deposited by glacial flows of icy material. But the cracked, contorted lunar landscapes puzzled them. The terrain of Miranda includes broad valleys; rolling hills; low faults that created square-corne features; cliffs and ridges that tower miles high; and deep canyons, in cluding a set of numerous, circular grooves that look like nestled race tracks and another set of linear grooves that makes it appear the surface was swept by a giant broom
Newspaper Details
Greenville Record Argus
Greenville, Pennsylvania, US
Mon, Jan 27, 1986
Page 1
Full Page
Clipped by
Sophia H.
CA 30 Jun 2026
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