JWST: New images of Uranus put Saturn’s rings to shame
Impressive photos
The James Webb Space Telescope, mankind’s most powerful space telescope, has turned its lens on the solar system’s enigmatic seventh planet, Uranus, and the results are impressive. In a single image we can see the icy planet, its rings and its moons.
Just twelve minutes of observation was enough for JWST’s infrared eye to reveal details we had never seen before.
What appears brightest in this blue ball is the polar region of the sky which has been in darkness for 42 years and now, in the middle of its spring, receives the full radiation of the Sun with its summer expected in 2028. other bright objects that appear are clouds, which are associated with storm activity in the ice giant’s hydrogen- and helium-filled atmosphere.
And while Saturn is considered the planet with the most impressive rings, the new image reveals 11 of Uranus’ 13 known rings. Two of the eleven were so dark that they had to be discovered by Voyager 2’s flyby in 1986. Future JWST observations will reveal the other two dark outer rings.
JWST managed to capture 6 of the 27 known moons of Uranus. All six are in the same orbital plane as the equator of the Uranus, but we know that there are more distant satellites that have inclined elliptical orbits. Observing these satellites may give us answers to how Uranus came to be perpendicular to its orbital plane.
