Uranus, as never seen: NASA took the first photo of its ‘invisible rings’

The new images released by NASA and ESA of the Planet Uranus They surprised the whole world. Is that the US space agency has released a new image of the seventh planet from the Sun, captured by the James Webb Space Telescope.

Compared to which the spaceship Traveler 2 taken when it flew past Uranus in 1986 in which only an almost featureless blue-green sphere is seen, the new shots are an example of the brutal progress that the conquest of space has achieved by experts.

Now, infrared and Webb’s sensibility Instead, they reveal their spectacular “invisible rings” to date and data from the planet’s atmosphere, as reported by the North American Space Agency.

The planet Uranus has unique features in the Solar System due to the fact that it’s the only one that rotates sidewaysat an angle of about 90 degrees to the plane of its orbit.

The $10 billion telescope captured 11 of the planet’s 13 rings in the new image, which are so bright they they seem to merge into an illuminated ring.

Astronomers are also amazed by the power of James Webb, as broke the two dust rings fainter ones that weren’t discovered until that 1986 flyby of Voyager 2.

The main rings are made in ice rockswhile the others are mostly chunks of ice obscured by rocks.

The rings are thin, narrow and dark. compared to those of other planets, such as Saturn.

also web captured many of the 27 known moons of Uranusmost of which are too small and faint to see, but the brightest six are identified in the wide-range image that was a 12 minute show.

The lateral rotation of Uranus causes extreme seasons due to the experience of the planet’s poles years of constant sunlight followed by an equal number of years of total darkness.

A day on Uranus lasts 17 hours and 14 minutes. (the time needed to rotate on itself). But one year, the time it takes to complete its orbit around the Sun, is equivalent to 84 Earth years (30,687 Earth days).

Uranus is mainly composed of fluid ice on a solid core. Neptune and Uranus are called “ice giants” because, while they are also gaseous planets like Jupiter and Saturn, they consist mainly of water ice, methane and ammonia.

The planet shows a blue tone in the disclosed representative color image created by combining data from two filters. Pictured on the right side of the planet is an area that shines at the sun-facing pole, known as the polar cap.

The shape and reason why this cap pops when the post gets into direct sunlight in the summer and disappears in the fall they are still a mystery to astronomers and scientists from around the world.

The mysterious white spot of Uranus

Last week, NASA shared new images of Uranus taken by the Hubble Space Telescope, 8 years on, showing the growth of a giant white spot in the planet’s north polar cap, which astronomers link to the strange planetary orbit and intriguing seasonal atmospheric activity on this planet.

Since its axis of rotation lies with respect to the plane of the planet’s orbit, of 84 years of period around the Sun; for 42 yearsparts of one of its hemispheres are completely devoid of sunlight, he reports RT.

The 2014 image was taken 7 years after the northern vernal equinox, when the sun shone directly on the planet’s equator. Multiple storms with clouds of methane ice crystals appear in northern latitudes.

The ring system and several small storms and also some faint cloud bands, he indicates RT.

Uranus’ spot continues to grow

In the latest Hubble view, taken in November 2022, the north pole is now seen leaning more towards the Sun. Its north polar ice cap shows a thick photochemical haze that continues to collect brighter year after year.

Astronomers are uncovering multiple effects, from atmospheric circulation, particle properties and chemical processes, that control how the atmospheric ice cap changes with the seasons.

At Uranus’ equinox in 2007, neither pole was particularly bright.

As the northern summer solstice approaches in 2028, the ice cap may become even brighter and point directly at Earth, allowing for a good view of the rings and the north pole; appearing anterior ring system.