Uranus has never looked better. Really.

Webb's first glimpse at this ice giant highlights bright atmospheric features, as well as 11 of the planet’s 13 rings. Only Voyager 2 and Keck (with adaptive optics) have imaged the planet's faintest rings before, and never as clearly as this.

Uranus rotates on its side, causing its poles to experience 42 years of sunlight and 42 years of darkness. (It takes 84 years to orbit the Sun.) When Voyager flew by Uranus in 1986, it was summer at its south pole. Currently, the south pole is out of view, facing the darkness of space.

Check out the polar cap (bright white area) on the right side of the image. Webb reveals a subtle enhanced brightening at its center. This polar cap appears in the direct sunlight of summer and vanishes in the fall. Webb's data will help us to understand this mystery.

This was only a 12-minute exposure image! And It's just the tip of the ice(planet)berg for what Webb will uncover. Read more and check out a bonus image showing the moons of Uranus in the comment section.

Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, with image processing by Joseph DePasquale (STScI)

#universe #nasa #uranus #webb #jwst

We’ve got an outer planet weather report!

Hubble regularly checks in on the outer planets in our solar system to monitor changes in seasons and atmospheres.

In these recent images of Jupiter, a “vortex street” of storms rage in the lower northern latitudes, seen as a wave pattern in the first image.

Meanwhile, Jupiter’s famous Great Red Spot continues to storm in the second image, but it’s actually shrunken down to the smallest size it’s ever been over observations records from the past 150 years. But for context, the storm is still big enough to swallow our entire Earth!

Over at Uranus, these two images taken in 2014 and 2022 show the planet’s unusual orbit, which takes 84 years as it rolls on its side around the Sun. The latter image displays Uranus’s hazy north pole, with several little storms along its boundary.

Jupiter images credit: NASA, ESA, STScI, Amy Simon (NASA-GSFC), and Michael H. Wong (UC Berkeley); Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI)

Uranus images credit: NASA, ESA, STScI, Amy Simon (NASA-GSFC), and Michael H. Wong (UC Berkeley); Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI)

#nasa #hubble #jupiter #uranus #planet #space #news #weather #universe #astronomy

Can you spot six of Uranus’s moons in this picture? Look closely 🔍

This #hubbleclassic image from 2004 shows a few of Uranus’ 13 faint rings and a handful of its moons. Brightest on the lower side in this image, the planet’s outermost ring is made of dust and small pebbles.

The brightest moon visible in this image is Ariel (lower right), which might have the youngest surface among all the moons of Uranus. The other five moons can be seen just outside the rings. All but one of them is named for a character in William Shakespeare's work: Desdemona, Portia, Cressida, and Puck. The last one, Belinda, was named for an Alexander Pope character.

#nasa #hubble #uranus #planet #space #science #astronomy #telescope #universe