![]() ![]() With the exact mechanism behind the haze unknown, scientists are studying the polar cap using telescope images such as this new Webb image.Īn artist's conceptual rendering of interactions between a prospective exoplanet and its star. The atmospheric haze seems to get brighter each year, according to the space agency. ![]() Surrounding Uranus’ north pole is a bright haze that NASA has previously reported as appearing when the pole is in direct sunlight during the summer. The planet is unique in its tilt to its side, causing its rings to be displayed vertically, unlike Saturn’s horizontal ring system. Located 1.8 billion miles (nearly 3 billion kilometers) away from our sun, Uranus takes 84 years to complete a full rotation. “The infrared can show us new depths and features that are difficult to see from the ground with the atmosphere in the way and invisible to telescopes that look in visible light like Hubble.” “The JWST gives us the ability to look at both Uranus and Neptune in a completely new way because we have never had a telescope of this size that looks in the infrared,” Rowe-Gurney said. The space observatory’s powerful Near-Infrared Camera, or NIRCam, can detect infrared light otherwise not visible to astronomers. Rowe-Gurney also expects the telescope to uncover more on Uranus’ atmospheric composition, helping scientists better understand this unusual gas giant.Ī November Hubble image of Uranus (left) captured the planet's bright polar cap, while the recent Webb image displayed more detail, with a subtle enhanced brightness at the cap's center. Scientists anticipate that future Webb images will be able to capture all 13 rings. “Uranus is such a strange world with its sideways tilt and lack of internal heat that any clues we can get about its history are very valuable.” Naomi Rowe-Gurney, a postdoctoral research scientist and solar system ambassador for the Webb space telescope at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, via email. “The ring system of a planet tells us a lot about its origins and formation,” said Dr. Two other, faint outer rings not shown in this latest image were discovered in 2007 from images taken by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, and scientists hope Webb will capture them in the future. Nine rings are classified as the main rings, while the other two are harder to capture due to their dusty makeup and were not discovered until the Voyager 2 mission’s flyby in 1986. Uranus has 13 known rings, with 11 of them visible in the new Webb image. Webb telescope details weather patterns on a distant planet with two suns An illustration of exoplanet VHS 1256 b and its two stars. ![]()
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