The planet’s moons and rings were also captured.
Once again, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has come up with fantastic images, which have now shown Uranus in a way no other satellite could before. Although the space telescope only had 12 minutes to observe the turquoise planet, it was also able to observe many of its moons and rings, he writes. Live Science.
The JWST space telescope examines planets in the infrared and near infrared regions, on the basis of which it can make many observations. In the case of Uranus, for example, it quickly became apparent that it rotated unusually, tilting on its side from time to time relative to its orbital plane. This results in the polar seasons being very different from those of other planets. During the 84 years of Uranus’ orbit, the planet’s poles receive the full light of the Sun in the summer, but are plunged into complete darkness in the winter.
JWST was also able to image a defining characteristic of Uranus: the polar brightness – the cause of which the researchers have been unable to decipher. In addition, the rings and moons of Uranus were captured. JWST has imaged 11 of the 13 known rings orbiting the planet, including two faint, dusty inner rings so faint they weren’t discovered until the Voyager 2 pass in 1986.
Scientists hope that future observations with the NASA Space Telescope will be able to pick up the two faint outer rings outside the main cluster. The telescope has captured some of the 27 known moons of Uranus, but observations have been hampered by the fact that some of the moons are too faint to see. However, these moons are in completely different orbits.
