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Destination Uranus! Rare chance to reach ice giants excites scientists

A planetary alignment provides a window to visit Uranus and Neptune — but time is tight.
  1. Elizabeth Gibney
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Momentum is building among planetary scientists to send a major mission to Uranus or Neptune — the most distant and least explored planets in the Solar System. Huge gaps remain in scientists’ knowledge of the blueish planets, known as the ice giants, which have been visited only once by a spacecraft. But the pressure is on to organize a mission in the next decade, because scientists want to take advantage of an approaching planetary alignment that would significantly cut travel time.

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Nature 579, 17 (2020)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-020-00619-y

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