- NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope snapped a new photo of the ice giant
- It reveals the planet’s rings, moons, and even storms in incredible detail
It is a cold, icy world and one of the most distant planets in our solar system.
And now astronomy fans have been treated to a new view of Uranus, revealing its rings, moons, and even storms in incredible detail.
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has snapped a new photo of the ice giant spinning on its side.
‘With its exquisite sensitivity, Webb captured Uranus’ dim inner and outer rings, including the elusive Zeta ring – the extremely faint and diffuse ring closest to the planet,’ NASA said.
‘It also imaged many of the planet’s 27 known moons, even seeing some small moons within the rings.’
Uranus is more than one billion miles away from Earth, and is one of the least explored planets in our solar system.
It was previously photographed back in the 1980s by NASA’s Voyager 2 spacecraft.
In these images – which only show visible wavelengths – Uranus appears as a placid, solid ball.
However, NASA’s Webb Space Telescope has the ability to take photos in infrared wavelengths.
This has allowed it to reveal exciting atmospheric features around the ice world, including a seasonal north polar cloud cap.
This polar cap is unique to Uranus – it seems to appear when the pole enters direct sunlight in the summer and vanish in the autumn.
‘The polar cap appears to become more prominent when the planet’s pole begins to point toward the Sun, as it approaches solstice and receives more sunlight,’ NASA said.
‘Uranus reaches its next solstice in 2028, and astronomers are eager to watch any possible changes in the structure of these features.’
The new images also reveal several bright storms near and below the southern border of the polar cap.
NASA believes these might be due to a combination of seasonal and meteorological effects.
‘Webb will help disentangle the seasonal and meteorological effects that influence Uranus’s storms, which is critical to help astronomers understand the planet’s complex atmosphere,’ the space agency explained.
Uranus spins on its side at a tilt of about 98 degrees.
This unusual tilt gives the planet the most extreme seasons in the solar system.
For nearly a quarter of the Uranian year, the suns shines over one pole, plunging the other half into a dark, 21-year long winter.
NASA hopes the new images will not only help in the planning of any future missions to Uranus, but will also help to understand other, similar-sized exoplanets.
‘Uranus can also serve as a proxy for studying the nearly 2,000 similarly sized exoplanets that have been discovered in the last few decades,’ the space agency added.
‘This “exoplanet in our backyard” can help astronomers understand how planets of this size work, what their meteorology is like, and how they formed.
‘This can in turn help us understand our own solar system as a whole by placing it in a larger context.’
Dr. Thomas Hughes is a UK-based scientist and science communicator who makes complex topics accessible to readers. His articles explore breakthroughs in various scientific disciplines, from space exploration to cutting-edge research.
