The Webb Space Telescope captured a stunning image of the planet Uranus, showing dramatic rings as well as bright features in the planet’s atmosphere.
Saturn may be the planet in our solar system best known for its spectacular rings, but the ice giant Uranus also has a system of 13 nested rings. Eleven of these rings – nine main rings and two faint dust rings – are clearly visible Latest Spectacular Pictures From NASA’s Web Space Telescope. Future images will reveal the remaining two faint outer rings discovered with the Hubble Space Telescope in 2007.
“Uranus has never looked better. Really,” NASA tweeted. “Only Voyager 2 and CAKE (with adaptive optics) have imaged the planet’s faintest rings before, and never before have they been seen as clearly as Webb’s first glimpse at this ice giant, which also highlights bright atmospheric features.”
As we reported earlier, the Webb Telescope was launched in December 2021 and after several months of suspenseful sunshield and mirror deployment, began capturing stunning images. First, there was the Deep Field Image of the Universe released last July. This is followed by images of exoplanet atmospheres, the Southern Ring Nebula, a cluster of interacting galaxies called the Stefan’s Quintet, and the Carina Nebula, a star-forming region about 7,600-light-years away. These images are said to have brought tears to the eyes of astronomers.
Last August, we got fantastic pictures of Jupiter, including the auroras at both poles that result from Jupiter’s strong magnetic field, as well as its thin rings and the gas giant’s two small moons. It was followed a month later by a mosaic image showing a panorama of star formation spanning 340 light-years in the Tarantula Nebula — so named because of its long, dusty filaments. We were also treated to spectacular images of Neptune and its rings, which have not been directly observed since Voyager 2 flew by the planet in 1989.
In October, the Webb Telescope gave us a spectacular new image pillar of creation—arguably the most famous photograph ever taken by a predecessor of the web, Hubble Space TelescopeIn 1995. And next month, the telescope gave astronomers new clues about the formation of a new star, with one Stunning image An hourglass-shaped dark cloud surrounding a protostar, an object known as L1527.
NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI
Uranus is the only planet in our solar system that is slightly tilted on its side as it orbits. This unique tilt gives rise to more extreme seasons: 42 years of sunlight and 42 years of darkness in an 84-year orbit around the Sun, per NASA. This image also captures a subtle glow in the center of the planet’s north polar cap facing the Sun, as well as a few bright clouds that are likely the result of storm activity. Data collected by the Webb telescope will help solve the mystery of why this polar cap is visible in direct summer sunlight but disappears in the fall.
These advanced polar features have not been seen before by other powerful telescopes such as Hubble or the Keck Observatory. But the primary illustrator of the web, The Near infrared camera (NIRCam), suitable for imaging very faint objects. NIRCam’s coronagraphs block any light coming from surrounding bright objects, just as shielding the eyes from bright sunlight helps us focus on the scene in front of us. NIRCam therefore boasts greater sensitivity and the ability to “see” longer wavelengths.
Image cataloged by NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI
