The space science community thinks the time is ripe to study Uranus in depth \u2014 and they\u2019re being serious. A new report compiled by planetary scientists from across the United States says that sending an interplanetary probe to study the ice giant planet should be considered the top priority for planetary exploration over the next decade.<\/p>\n

Specifically, scientists are calling on NASA to create the Uranus Orbiter and Probe, or UOP. The mission concept would send a spacecraft into orbit around Uranus, along with a probe that would plunge into the planet\u2019s atmosphere. Scientists envision such a mission launching sometime in the early 2030s as long as engineers get started on it as soon as next year.<\/p>\n

If it works, the UOP mission could provide the most intricate details yet about this mostly unexplored world. The only spacecraft to ever visit Uranus was NASA\u2019s Voyager 2 mission, which flew by the planet in 1986, coming within 50,700 miles of the planet\u2019s cloud tops. Voyager 2 unlocked some intriguing secrets about Uranus, discovering new moons and rings around the planet. But Voyager 2 didn\u2019t stay for long; it zoomed by during its exploration of the outer Solar System and kept going, eventually heading off into interstellar space. <\/p>\n