The James Webb Space Telescope recently captured an image of Uranus, detailing the ice giant’s ring structure, bright moons and vibrant atmosphere.
Observation made on February 6, The powerful telescope captured another icy giant in the solar system, Neptune, visible in the background of a similar image.
According to a NASA press releaseA new image of Uranus “contains dramatic rings and bright features in the planet’s atmosphere.”
“Web data shows the observatory’s unprecedented sensitivity to faint dust rings imaged only by two other facilities: the Voyager 2 spacecraft when it passed by the planet in 1986 and the Keck Observatory with advanced adaptive optics,” NASA wrote in a affidavit. Thursday launch.
“Uranus has never looked better,” said NASA’s Web Telescope. Tweet from your social media Count Thursday.
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Harsh seasons due to years of sun and darkness
The world’s largest and most powerful space telescope is taking pictures of thousands of galaxies – some formed after the Big Bang billions of years ago and some faint objects never seen before.
According to NASA, this telescope is designed to examine all stages of cosmic history.
Uranus, the seventh planet from the Sun, is unique. According to NASA. The planet rotates sideways at an angle of about 90 degrees with the plane of its orbit. This causes extreme seasons, with the planet’s poles experiencing several years of continuous sunlight, followed by an equal number of years of complete darkness.
Blurred rings captured on camera
The planet is classified as an ice giant due to the chemical composition of its interior. the space agency said. Most of its mass is thought to be “a thick, hot fluid of icy material—water, methane, and ammonia—over a small, rocky core.”
NASA said Uranus has 13 known rings, 11 of which can be seen in the new image.
According to NASA, “Some of these rings are very bright along the web, and when they come close together, they merge into one large ring.” “Nine are classified as the planet’s main rings, and two faint dust rings (such as the planet’s diffuse Zeta ring) were not discovered until 1986 by Voyager 2.”
NASA writes that the powerful telescope captured many of the 27 known moons of Uranus.
“What Webb can do by tracking this mysterious planet is just the tip of the iceberg.”
Natalie Nessa Allonde covers breaking news and trends for USA TODAY. Contact her at [email protected] and follow her on Twitter @employee.
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