A day at Uranus just got 28 seconds longer

A day at Uranus just got a little longer. Scientists reported Monday that observations by the Hubble Space Telescope have confirmed it takes Uranus 17 hours, 14 minutes and 52 seconds to complete a full rotation. That’s 28 seconds longer than estimates by NASA’s Voyager 2 spacecraft in the 1980s. A Paris-led team studied a decade’s worth of aurora observations at Uranus to track its magnetic poles. That long-term tracking provided a more precise rotation period for Uranus. The researchers say this new approach can help pinpoint the rotation of any world with auroras and a magnetosphere. A day at Uranus just got a little longer. Scientists reported Monday that observations by the Hubble Space Telescope have confirmed it takes Uranus 17 hours, 14 minutes and 52 seconds to complete a full rotation. That’s 28 seconds longer than estimates by NASA’s Voyager 2 spacecraft in the 1980s. A Paris-led team studied a decade’s worth of aurora observations at Uranus to track its magnetic poles. That long-term tracking provided a more precise rotation period for Uranus. The researchers say this new approach can help pinpoint the rotation of any world with auroras and a magnetosphere.  AP Technology and Science