Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences

Uranus is a fascinating planet, but unfortunately underestimated. Uranus and Neptune are at a great distance from the Earth, which makes them inconvenient for research. As a result, they are the least studied planets in the solar system that only one spacecraft visited - NASA's Voyager 2 in the 1980s. But thanks to rare space alignment, the lonely gas giants at the edge of the solar system will become a little closer to Earth for a short time.

Sunlight takes about eight minutes to reach Earth, and about 2.7 hours to reach Uranus. The path to Neptune at the light of the Sun takes 4.2 hours. This shows very well how far they are from the inside of the solar system. To reduce the flight time to these worlds, scientists need to use the attraction of other planets to disperse the spacecraft.

Voyager 2 was accelerated by Jupiter and Saturn, which allowed it to reach both Uranus and Neptune in 12 years. In the 2030s, Jupiter will again be in a convenient position for this and will be able to accelerate a new probe directed to Uranus and Neptune. Thanks to the found space alignment window, the device could reach any of the distant gas giants in about 12-13 years.

popmech.ru