It may not be the gold ring from “The 12 Days of Christmas,” but Uranus And that ring stands shining in this stunning portrait. james webb space telescope (JWST).
This is the second image of Uranus taken by JWST this year. first, Released in Aprilwas a two-tone work consisting of images taken at infrared wavelengths of 1.4 microns and 3.0 microns. This new image adds additional wavelengths, specifically his 2.1 microns and 4.6 microns, giving a more complete picture of the seventh planet. Sun.
But the new JWST Uranus image doesn’t just show a planet. Uranus’ aforementioned rings shine brightly in the infrared, and JWST’s optics also resolved the elusive and diffuse inner rings. zetering. Many of Uranus are 27 months is also on display. A cropped view shows some of Uranus’s smaller, fainter moons. embedded in the ringa wider view shows Uranus’s five large moons: Ariel, Miranda, Oberon, Titania, and Umbriel.
Related: A ring rings around Uranus! James Webb Space Telescope captures stunning images of ice giants (photos, videos)
The extraordinary richness of detail in these new images puts Uranus’s polar cap in the spotlight.Unlike earth and Mars‘ The polar caps are made of solid ice, and Uranus gas world And its polar caps are hazy halos of aerosols hanging high in the atmosphere.
JWST’s new image shows Uranus’s northern polar cap facing almost straight ahead (and thus toward the Sun), with a bright spot and a dark collar at its center, both of which have not been previously observed in the infrared or infrared. Ta. Radio wavelength observation, but nothing has ever been this clear. The bright spot that appears white in the new JWST is the center of the Earth, which is warmer than its surroundings. huge cyclone vortex.
Bright storms can also be seen blowing around the polar cap, which is thought to be driven, at least in part, by seasonal fluctuations. Uranus is a very strange planet in that, for reasons unknown, it rotates sideways around the sun, tilted 98 degrees to the ecliptic plane (the plane of the orbits of other planets). Rather than the poles of Uranus being “above” Earth, they can be seen directly in front of it. This provides unique climatic conditions that the astronomer hopes to witness with his JWST toward Uranus’s north pole. summer solstice In 2028.
The weather on Earth’s polar caps is at its most active during the summer solstice. Uranus’ tilt means that one pole is constantly exposed to daylight and the other pole is constantly exposed to night for about a quarter of Uranus’s year, which is equivalent to 84 Earth years. Right now, the North Pole is facing us, but in 2070 Uranus’ South Pole will be basking in the summer sun at a very far distance from the Sun (2.96 billion kilometers/1.83 billion miles). It will be.
It seems strange now to think that NASA did that in 1986. voyager 2 The mission flew past the ice giant, and the general consensus was that the blue-green Uranus looked bland and a bit boring. atmosphere It was disappointing after seeing the mayhem in the atmosphere Jupiter and Saturn. As JWST’s advanced vision shows, little did planetary scientists know that there was so much going on on Uranus in the infrared wavelengths visible beneath the featureless haze.
The observations will not only provide the best data yet for planetary scientists trying to understand how Uranus’ atmosphere works, but will also help hone the scientific questions asked in future explorations of Uranus. will prove important.
Recent A decade of research in planetary science and astrobiology He emphasized the mission to Uranus as his top priority. The orbital alignment means that missions that would take more than a decade to reach Uranus would need to be launched by 2030. Planetary scientists are still nervously awaiting approval from the government. NASA.
Until then timeyou should be satisfied with the great images provided by JWST.