Uranus Viewed More Clearly Than Ever!

Uranus, the seventh closest planet to the Sun in the Solar System, has only been observed with the Voyager 2 spacecraft and Keck to date. Consisting of a frozen mantle and hydrogen and helium gases, the planet was observed by the James Webb Space Telescope in a way that made history.

What’s more, James Webb has also clearly revealed the planet’s inconspicuous faint rings in the images we’ve seen before. Clouds on the planet and the brightest moons of Uranus were also caught in James Webb’s lenses.

Uranus posed like this:

In this image by James Webb, the bright spots on the planet originate from clouds in the atmosphere. But these dots aren’t the most interesting part of the image, it’s the white area that can be seen in a much larger way.

This white area is the part of the planet that is completely covered in ice. Thanks to James Webb, we can see this area so clearly for the first time in history. Interestingly, this area disappears during the planet’s autumn season, even though it appears in direct sunlight. Data obtained by James Webb is expected to illuminate this mystery.

The rings we see in the images show the 13 rings of Uranus. But we can only see 11 rings. This is because the other two rings seem to be intertwined as a result of reflecting too much light.

In this photo, however, we cannot see all 27 moons of Uranus. Many of these satellites are very small and reflect so little light that it is difficult to observe. The 6 satellites we see above are Titania, Oberon, Miranda, Puck, Ariel and Ubriel.

Moreover, according to NASA’s statement, this photo is the product of only 12 minutes of exposure. With longer exposures, it will be possible to obtain much more detailed images and data about Uranus.