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New Study Questions the Classification of Uranus and Neptune as Ice Giants

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A recent study conducted by researchers at the University of Zurich indicates that the compositions of Uranus and Neptune might be less icy than previously assumed.

Uranus could be classified as an ice giant (left) or a rock giant (right), depending on the assumptions of the model. Image credit: Keck Institute for Space Studies / Chuck Carter.

“Uranus and Neptune remain poorly understood, making the designation of ice giants too simplistic,” states Dr. Luca Morf, a student at the University of Zurich.

“Models based on physical data incorporate too many assumptions, while empirical models fall short in complexity.”

“Our approach combines both methodologies to create an interior model that is unbiased, yet physically coherent.”

The research commenced with a stochastic density distribution inside the planets.

Subsequently, the team calculated the gravitational fields of the planets in alignment with observational data to infer their likely compositions.

The process was iterated to achieve the closest alignment between the model and the empirical data.

Employing a new, unbiased yet fully physical framework, scientists have revealed that the internal compositions of the solar system’s ice giants are not restricted to ice alone.

“We initially proposed this concept nearly 15 years ago, and now we possess a numerical framework to substantiate it,” remarked Professor Ravit Held of the University of Zurich.

“This expanded spectrum of internal compositions suggests both planets could be rich in water or minerals.”

The study also sheds light on the enigmatic magnetic fields of Uranus and Neptune.

In contrast to Earth’s defined north and south magnetic poles, the magnetic fields of Uranus and Neptune exhibit greater complexity, featuring multiple poles.

“Our model introduces a so-called ‘ionized water’ layer that generates magnetic dynamos that account for the observed non-dipolar magnetic fields,” noted Professor Held.

“Moreover, we discovered that Uranus’ magnetic field has a more profound origin compared to that of Neptune.”

While the findings are promising, some ambiguities linger.

“A significant challenge is that physicists still have limited understanding of how materials behave under the extreme pressure and temperature conditions in planetary cores, which could influence our conclusions,” Morf added.

Notwithstanding the uncertainties, these new findings open avenues for possible internal composition scenarios, challenging longstanding assumptions and informing future materials science research under planetary conditions.

“Depending on model assumptions, both Uranus and Neptune have the potential to be classified as rock giants or ice giants,” Professor Held remarked.

“At present, the data is insufficient to differentiate between the two, highlighting the necessity for dedicated missions to Uranus and Neptune to uncover their true natures.”

A paper detailing this research was published in this week’s journal Astronomy and Astrophysics.

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Luca Morf and Ravit Held, 2025. Ice or rock? Convection or stability? New interior models for Uranus and Neptune. A&A 704, A183; doi: 10.1051/0004-6361/202556911

Source: www.sci.news

Scientists Might Have Unraveled the Mystery of Uranus’ Radiation Belts

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In 1986, NASA’s Voyager 2 conducted the sole direct measurement of Uranus’ radiation environment. These findings revealed a well-recognized system characterized by a weak ion emission band and an unexpectedly strong electron emission band. Nevertheless, these observations might not have been taken under standard conditions. A recent study by scientists at the Southwest Research Institute compared Voyager 2’s data with comparable phenomena on Earth. Their findings, in conjunction with a new interpretation of the Voyager 2 flyby, suggest that the interaction of solar wind with Uranus’ magnetosphere may have amplified electromagnetic waves, enabling electrons to reach relativistic speeds. This opens new avenues for exploration at Uranus and emphasizes the necessity for missions orbiting the planet.

Allen et al. The researchers compared the effects on space weather of the high-speed solar wind structures that caused intense solar storms on Earth in 2019 (first panel) (second panel) with conditions observed on Uranus by Voyager 2 in 1986 (third panel), revealing a potential solution to a 39-year-old mystery regarding the extreme radiation belts discovered. Image credit: SwRI.

In 1986, during its unique flyby of Uranus, Voyager 2 recorded unexpectedly high levels of electron emission bands.

These electron emission belts were surprising, based on extrapolations from other planetary systems.

Since then, scientists have puzzled over how Uranus could maintain such a tightly constrained electron emission belt, making it distinct from other planets in the solar system.

Robert Allen and his colleagues from the Southwest Research Institute hypothesize that the observations made by Voyager 2 might closely resemble processes occurring on Earth due to significant solar wind storms.

They propose that a solar wind structure, known as a corotating interaction region, was traversing the Uranus system at that time.

This accounts for the exceptionally high energy levels detected by Voyager 2.

“Science has progressed significantly since Voyager 2’s flyby,” stated Dr. Allen.

“We aimed to analyze the Voyager 2 data in relation to Earth observations gathered in the years that followed.”

A recent study indicates that during Voyager 2’s mission, the Uranian system may have undergone a space weather event that triggered powerful radio frequency waves—the most intense recorded throughout Voyager 2’s journey.

“In 1986, scientists believed these waves would dissipate and scatter the electrons within Uranus’ atmosphere,” Dr. Allen noted.

“However, they have come to understand that under specific conditions, these same waves can accelerate electrons and contribute additional energy to the planetary system.”

“In 2019, Earth experienced a similar event that resulted in a significant acceleration of radiation belt electrons,” said Sarah Vines from the Southwest Research Institute.

“If a comparable mechanism interacted with the Uranus system, it would explain the unexpected additional energy observed by Voyager 2.”

Nonetheless, these revelations also raise numerous questions regarding the fundamental physics and the sequence of events that allow the emission of such powerful waves.

“This underscores the importance of launching a mission focused on Uranus,” Dr. Allen emphasized.

“This discovery also holds significant implications for analogous star systems like Neptune.”

The results are published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.

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RC Allen et al. 2025. Unraveling the mystery of Uranus’ electron radiation belts: Using insights from Earth’s radiation belts to reassess Voyager 2 observations. Geophysical Research Letters 52 (22): e2025GL119311; doi: 10.1029/2025GL119311

Source: www.sci.news

Webb Uncovers a New Moon Orbiting Uranus

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Astronomers utilizing the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope have identified a previously uncharted small moon, provisionally named S/2025 U 1. This discovery, made from a series of images taken on February 2, 2025, brings Uranus’s total number of moons to 29.

This Webb/nircam image illustrates S/2025 U1 along with 13 of the other 28 identified moons. Image credits: NASA/ESA/CSA/STSCI/M. El Moutamid, SWRI/M. Hedman, University of Idaho.

Situated in the outer solar system, Uranus is the seventh planet from the Sun.

This cyan ice giant, often referred to as a “lateral planet” due to its extreme axial tilt, has a thick atmosphere composed of hydrogen, helium, and methane.

The 28 moons of Uranus include five major ones: Titania, Oberon, Ambriel, Ariel, and Miranda, discovered between 1787 and 1948.

Known as “The Literary Moons,” the moons of Uranus are named after characters from the works of Shakespeare and Alexander Pope.

Astronomers estimate that Uranus’s larger moons are approximately equal parts water ice and silicate rock.

“As part of Webb’s Guest Observer program, we discovered a previously unknown satellite of the ice giant,” explained Dr. Maryame El Moutamid, a researcher at the Southwest Research Institute.

“This object is the smallest ever detected and was observed during a set of 10 long exposures captured by Webb’s near-infrared camera (NIRCAM).”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pa8joehgtg

The moon, provisionally designated S/2025 U1, resides at the end of Uranus’s inner ring.

Estimated to have a diameter of only 10 km (6 miles), its reflectance (albedo) is presumed to be similar to that of other small Uranian satellites.

It is located approximately 56,250 km (35,000 miles) away from the Earth’s equatorial plane, positioned between the orbits of Ophelia and Bianca.

Ophelia has a diameter of about 43 km (13 miles), while Bianca is elongated, measuring 64 x 46 km (40 x 29 miles).

“While it’s a small moon, its discovery is significant. This is something that even NASA’s Voyager 2 spacecraft missed during its flybys nearly 40 years ago,” Dr. El Moutamid remarked.

S/2025 U1 becomes the 14th member of a complex system of small moons, circling inward among the larger moons, including Miranda, Ariel, Umbriel, Titania, and Oberon.

“Unlike other planets, Uranus possesses a remarkable number of small inner moons. The intricate interactions with its ring system indicate a chaotic history that merges the ring and lunar systems,” Dr. El Moutamid noted.

“Furthermore, this new moon’s small size and unexpected nature may lead to the discovery of even more complexities.”

Source: www.sci.news

Uranus: Explore Its Tiny New Moon in Just Two Hours of Walking!

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Introducing the Cosmic Welcome Mat, the newest addition to our solar system.

On Tuesday, astronomers discovered a new satellite approximately the size of 90 soccer fields. This new moon was found orbiting the seventh planet from the sun, Uranus, and was initially spotted by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope on February 2nd. It joins 28 other known moons in the busy orbit of Uranus.

The observations of Uranus made by the Webb telescope provide researchers with enhanced understanding of this enigmatic planet.

“Uranus has more small inner moons than any other planet,” stated Matthew Tiscareno, a member of the research team and senior research scientist at the SETI Institute in California. He mentioned in a statement.

Tiscareno added that the “complex interaction” between Uranus’s moons and its faint ring system hints at a tumultuous evolutionary history for the planet.

Moreover, this new moon is smaller and more surprising than the smallest previously known inner satellites, indicating there may be further complexities to uncover,” he stated in a report.

Researchers note that the new satellite is situated about 35,000 miles from the center of Uranus and maintains a nearly circular orbit.

With a diameter of just 6 miles, it can be traversed in roughly two hours at an active walking pace; however, follow-up observations are necessary to verify the moon’s size and additional characteristics.

These findings are still pending peer review.

Uranus is home to five major moons known as Miranda, Ariel, Umbriel, Titania, and Oberon. The recently discovered moon orbits among these five primary satellites, according to researchers.

All moons of Uranus are named after characters from the works of Shakespeare and Alexander Pope, as per NASA’s guidelines. The new moon is yet to be named and will require approval from the International Astronomical Union for its official designation.

“While small, this moon is a notable discovery. I didn’t even catch sight of it during the Voyager 2 mission nearly 40 years ago,” he remarked in a statement.

In 1986, the Voyager 2 spacecraft made history as the first human-made object to fly by Uranus, providing humanity’s first detailed observations of this distant planet. This encounter yielded over 7,000 images and led to the discovery of two new rings and 11 new moons around Uranus.

While the latest moon’s size might have been too small for the Voyager 2 camera to detect, the advanced instruments aboard the Webb telescope are expected to reveal more about Uranus and its system.

“Looking ahead, the discovery of this moon exemplifies how modern astronomy builds upon the legacy of missions like Voyager 2,” El Moutamid stated. “Now, almost 40 years later, the James Webb Space Telescope is pushing those boundaries even further.”

Source: www.nbcnews.com

Newly Discovered Moon Reveals Uranus Has the Smallest Orbit of Its Kind

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Astronomers have identified a new moon nestled among the 28 others near Uranus.

NASA, ESA, CSA, STSCI, M. ELMOU

A recently discovered, faint moon orbits Uranus, bringing its total count to 29. Several of the other moons of this gas giant bear names from the works of William Shakespeare, and there are discussions among scientists about which character will inspire the new moon’s name.

The moon was uncovered by a team led by Maryame El Moutamid from the Southwest Research Institute in Colorado, utilizing 10 long-exposure infrared images captured by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) on February 2 this year.

For now, the moon is temporarily designated as S/2025 U 1. However, it is likely to receive a name aligned with the tradition of naming Uranus’ moons after characters from Shakespeare’s plays, a convention established since the discovery of Titania and Oberon, the planet’s first two moons, in 1787.

All proposed names for newly discovered moons must receive approval from the International Astronomical Union (IAU), the authoritative body responsible for assigning names and designations to celestial objects. Mark Showalter from the Seti Institute, who is part of the research team and an avid theater enthusiast, mentioned that while there hasn’t been any discussion on candidates yet, it’s certainly an intriguing proposition.

Showalter described the challenge of detecting such a small, dim moon, comparing it to “trying to see a fly while staring directly at the headlights of a car.” He expressed admiration for the James Webb telescope’s sensitivity, which far exceeds that of any telescope that has come before it.

There is optimism for more moons to be discovered around Uranus, as Showalter remarked, “We certainly haven’t completed our observations.” He believes it’s reasonable to propose that additional satellites exist, particularly those that may influence the ring system.

El Moutamid pointed out that the clarity of Uranus’ rings suggests there could be more undiscovered moons associated with their formation. “Perhaps there are more waiting to be identified,” she added. Some could be uncovered by the JWST, while others may be detected by a proposed Uranus orbiter and probe mission targeted for 2044. “There likely are many very small moons that remain invisible due to the limitations of current observational methods,” she said.

The S/2025 U1 is estimated to measure around 10 km in diameter, rendering it too small to be captured by cameras on the Voyager 2 probe, which launched in 1977 and passed Uranus in 1986, coming within around 81,500 kilometers. To date, it remains the closest encounter with Uranus by any spacecraft from Earth.

The new moon resides at the inner edge of Uranus’ rings, situated approximately 56,250 kilometers from the center of the planet’s equatorial plane, fitting between the orbits of the moons Ophelia and Bianca.

NASA oversees the JWST’s “General Observer” program, which allows researchers worldwide to propose observation targets that require one of the telescope’s advanced sensors. El Moutamid dedicated time to studying Uranus’ rings using the JWST’s Nircam Instrument (a high-resolution infrared sensor), which ultimately led to the discovery of this new moon.

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Source: www.newscientist.com

Uranus May Be Warmer Than Previously Thought

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Recent studies published in the journal reveal that Uranus emits approximately 15% more energy than it receives from the Sun, as documented in Monthly Notices from the Royal Astronomical Society and Geophysical Research Book.

Composite image of Uranus. Image credit: Marcos Van Dam/Wm Keck Observatory.

Uranus distinguishes itself from other planets in our solar system by rotating on its side, causing each pole to face the Sun for 42 consecutive years during its “summer.”

This planet also rotates in a direction opposite to all other planets except Venus.

Data from the 1986 Voyager 2 flyby mission showed that Uranus has an unusually cold interior, prompting scientists to reconsider how the planet formed and its evolution within the solar system.

“Since the Voyager 2 flyby, there’s been an assumption that Uranus lacks internal heat,” said Dr. Amy Simon, a planetary scientist and co-author from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. First paper.

“However, explaining this has been challenging, particularly when compared to other giant planets.”

“The data regarding Uranus’s heat emissions originated from a single measurement made during the Voyager 2 mission,” Dr. Simon noted. “This reliance on one data point created a significant challenge.”

Through advanced computer modeling and analysis of decades of data, Dr. Simon and her colleagues discovered that Uranus does, in fact, generate internal heat.

To understand a planet’s internal heat, scientists compare the energy it receives from the Sun to the energy it radiates back into space as reflected light and emitted heat.

Other giant planets like Saturn, Jupiter, and Neptune emit more heat than they receive, suggesting that the excess heat originates from within.

The rate at which a planet releases heat can indicate its age; a planet that emits less heat than it absorbs is generally considered older.

Because Uranus was believed to emit an equal amount of heat to what it received, it was initially thought to lack internal heat.

This discrepancy puzzled scientists, leading them to speculate that Uranus might be significantly older than its neighbors, having completely cooled over time.

Some hypotheses suggested that a massive impact (possibly the same event that tilted the planet) may have stripped Uranus of its internal heat.

However, these theories did not satisfy researchers, motivating them to investigate what they termed the “Uranus cold case.”

“Did we mistakenly believe that Uranus has no internal heat?” asked Professor Patrick Irwin from Oxford University, the lead author of the first paper.

“We conducted extensive calculations to evaluate how much sunlight is reflected by Uranus, only to realize that it is actually more reflective than previously estimated.”

Researchers aimed to assess Uranus’s overall energy budget, exploring the total energy received from the Sun, the light reflected, and the heat emitted.

This required calculating the total light reflected from the planet from various angles.

“We need to consider light scattered across the planet’s surface instead of just direct reflections,” Dr. Simon explained.

To provide the most accurate energy budget estimate for Uranus, scientists created a computer model incorporating all available data on Uranus’s atmosphere from decades of ground- and space-based observations, including data from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and NASA’s infrared telescope in Hawaii.

This model accounts for factors like haze, cloud cover, and seasonal changes that influence how sunlight is reflected and heat escapes.

The findings reveal that Uranus emits about 15% more energy than it receives from the Sun, as reported in a second study.

These investigations suggest that Uranus possesses its own internal heat but emits more than twice the energy it receives, although still less than its neighbor, Neptune.

“Now we need to delve deeper into what the additional heat on Uranus signifies and improve our measurement techniques,” Dr. Simon concluded.

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Patrick GJ Irwin et al. 2025. Uranus’ bolometric binding albedo and energy balance. mnras 540(2): 1719-1729; doi: 10.1093/mnras/staf800

XINYUE WANG et al. 2025. Uranus’ internal heat flux and energy imbalance. Geophysical Research Book 52 (14): E2025GL115660; doi: 10.1029/2025GL115660

Source: www.sci.news

Astronomers achieve unparalleled precision in measuring Uranus’ rotational speed

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The rotation period for Uranus was estimated at 17.24 hours from radio auroral measurements by NASA’s Voyager 2 spacecraft in 1986. Using long-term tracking of Uranus’ poles between 2011 and 2022 from Hubble images of UV light, astronomers now have an updated independent, highly accurate rotation period of 17.247864 hours, or 28 seconds longer than the estimated Voyager 2.

This image of the Uranus aurora was photographed by Hubble on October 10th, 2022. Image credit: NASA/ESA/Hubble/L. Ramie/L. Slomovsky.

“Our measurements not only provide essential references to the planetary science community, they solve long-standing problems. Previous coordinate systems based on outdated rotation periods quickly become inaccurate, making it impossible to track Uranus’ magnetic poles.

“With this new longitude system, we can compare nearly 40 years of observations of the Aurora and even plan future Uranus missions.”

This breakthrough was possible thanks to long-term surveillance of Hubble’s Uranus.

For over a decade, telescopes have regularly observed their ultraviolet emissions, allowing astronomers to generate magnetic field models that match changes in the position of magnetic poles with time.

“The continuous observation from Hubble was extremely important,” Dr. Lammy said.

“Without this rich data, it would not have been possible to detect periodic signals at the level of accuracy achieved.”

Unlike Earth, Jupiter, or Saturn’s aurora, Uranus’ aurora behaves in a unique and unpredictable way.

This is due to the highly tilted magnetic field of the planet, which is significantly offset from the axis of rotation.

The findings not only help astronomers understand Uranus’ magnetosphere, but also help to provide important information for future missions.

“These discoveries set a stage for further research that will deepen our understanding of one of the most mystical planets in the solar system,” the author said in a statement.

“The ability to monitor objects for decades has allowed Hubble to remain an essential tool for planetary science, paving the way for the next era of exploration on Uranus.”

result It was published in the journal this week Natural Astronomy.

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L. Ramie et al. A new rotation period and longitude system for Uranus. Nut AthlonPublished online on April 7th, 2025. doi:10.1038/s41550-025-02492-z

Source: www.sci.news

Could you survive on Uranus for longer than expected?

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SEI 246747964

Uranus seen on the Voyager 2 spaceship in 1986

NASA/JPL-Caltech

The day on Uranus has been a little longer thanks to a more accurate measurement of its rotation period, which should help scientists plan missions to investigate the gas giant.

Understanding the rotation period of giant planets in the solar system is much more difficult than anything like Mars or Earth, as ferocious wind storms make direct measurements impossible.

The first measurement of Uranus rotation was from the Voyager 2 probe, which took the closest approach on January 24, 1986. Researchers at the time determined that the planet’s magnetic field was 59 degrees from the north of the sky, but the axis of rotation was offset by 98 degrees.

These extreme offsets mean that Uranus effectively “lying down” compared to Earth, while the magnetic pole follows a larger circle as the planet rotates. Researchers at the time found that they completed a full rotation every 17 hours by measuring both the magnetic field and the radio emissions from the aurora.

now, Laurent Ramie The Paris Observatory in France and his colleagues measured it 28 seconds longer. More importantly, their measurements are 1000 times more accurate, reducing the margin of error per second.

Researchers looked at images of Uranus’ ultraviolet aurora taken by the Hubble Space Telescope between 2011 and 2022, and tracked the long-term evolution of the planet’s magnetic poles and circled the axis of rotation.

The error in previous measurements meant that it became impossible to accurately determine the location of Uranus after more than a few years, but the new measurements should be effective for decades. This means that it may depend on calculating mission-critical objectives, such as the probes may orbit and enter the planet’s atmosphere.

Tim Bedding The University of Sydney in Australia calls the team’s measurement techniques “very smart,” but points out that the new period of the day on Uranus doesn’t differ much, and is within the scope of old calculation errors. “That hasn’t changed much,” Bedding says. “Now, the more convenient it is, the more accurate it becomes.”

The Mystery of the Universe: Cheshire, England

Spend a weekend with some of the brightest minds of science. Explore the mystery of the universe in an exciting program that includes an excursion to see the iconic Lovell telescope.

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Source: www.newscientist.com

Hubble sheds light on atmospheric composition and dynamics of Uranus

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The 20-year Hubble study of Uranus provides valuable data to help you understand the atmospheric dynamics of this distant ice giant. This serves as a proxy for studying the deformation of similar sizes and compositions.

The image sequence shows changes in Uranus over the past four years when Hubble’s STIS instrument observed Uranus over 20 years. Over that period, astronomers saw Uranus season as the Antarctic region (left) entered winter shadows, and the Arctic region (right) brightened, and began to become more direct view as summer approached the north. The top row of visible light shows how Uranus’ colours look to the human eye, as can be seen by even amateur telescopes. In the second line, false-colored images of the planet are assembled from visible and near-infrared light observations. The color and brightness correspond to the amount of methane and aerosol. Both of these quantities were indistinguishable before STI first targeted Uranus in 2002. Generally, the green area has less methane than the blue area, and the red area does not show methane. The red area is in the limbs, where the stratosphere of Uranus is almost completely free of methane. The two bottom rows show the latitudinal structures of aerosols and methane, inferred from those visible from 1,000 different wavelengths (colors) to near-infrared. In the third row, bright areas show cloudy conditions, while dark areas show clearer conditions. In the fourth row, the bright areas show depleted methane, and the dark areas show the total amount of methane. At mid- and low-latitude latitudes, aerosol and methane depletion has a unique latitude structure that has changed little over 20 years of observation. However, in polar regions, aerosol and methane depletion behave very differently. In the third row, aerosols near the Arctic show a dramatic increase, becoming very dark in the early days of the Northern Spring and very bright in recent years. It appears that aerosols also disappear in their left limbs when solar radiation disappears. This is evidence that solar radiation alters aerosol haze in Uranus’s atmosphere. On the other hand, methane depletion appears to remain very high in both polar regions throughout the observation period. Image credits: NASA/ESA/Erich Karkoschka, LPL.

Uranus is a giant ice planet about four times the diameter of Earth.

It has a hydrogen and helium feel and has a bit of methane that gives it a blue tint.

Uranus lies to its side and rotates, its magnetic field is biased – it tilts at the center 60 degrees from its axis.

When Voyager 2 passed Uranus in 1986, it provided a close-up snapshot of the planet facing sideways. What it saw resembled a bland blue-green billiard ball.

In comparison, Hubble recorded the story of 20 years of seasonal changes from 2002 to 2022.

During that period, it was used by a team of astronomers led by Dr. Erich Karkoschka of the University of Arizona and Dr. Larry Slomovsky and Dr. Pat Free of the University of Wisconsin. Hubble Space Telescope Imaging Spectrometer (stis) Draw an accurate picture of Uranus’ atmosphere structure.

Researchers observed Uranus four times in 20 years: 2002, 2012, 2015, and 2022.

They found that unlike gas giants Saturn and Jupiter, methane was not evenly distributed on Uranus.

Instead, it is heavily depleted near the pole. This depletion remained relatively constant for 20 years.

However, the structure of aerosols and hazes changes dramatically, and brightens significantly in the Arctic region as the planet approaches the northern summer solstice in 2030.

Uranus takes Earth age just over 84 years to complete the single orbit of the Sun.

Therefore, for over 20 years, the team has seen the spring almost north to make the Northern Pole shine directly in 2030, before shining the equator of Uranus.

“Hubble’s observations suggest a complex atmospheric circulation pattern for Uranus during this period,” the scientists said.

“The data most sensitive to methane distribution shows polar inundation and upwelling in other regions.”

Source: www.sci.news

NASA to investigate subterranean ocean of Uranus’ moon

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Some of the icy moons in the Jupiter and Saturn systems appear to have oceans of liquid water inside them. Although our knowledge of Uranus' moons is more limited, future tours of the Uranian system may be able to detect subsurface oceans. To plan for this, we need to understand how the internal structure of satellites, with and without oceans, relates to observable quantities. New research from the University of Texas Geophysical Institute and the University of California, Santa Cruz shows it may be possible to diagnose the presence or absence of liquid water oceans inside some of Uranus' moons, including Miranda and Ariel. There is, Umbriel, and it is thought that this, combined with measurements of the gravitational field, may provide comprehensive constraints on the internal structure and history of Uranus' moons.

Uranus' four major moons, Ariel, Umbriel, Titania, and Oberon, may have oceanic layers. Salty seas, or salty seas, are found beneath the ice and above water-rich and dry rock layers. Miranda is too small to retain enough heat in the ocean layer. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech.

When NASA's Voyager 2 flew by Uranus in 1986, it took grainy photos of the large icy moon.

Now, NASA plans to send another spacecraft to Uranus, this time equipped to see if those icy moons hide oceans of liquid water.

The mission is still in the early planning stages, but planetary researchers are preparing by building a new computer model that can be used to detect oceans beneath the ice using only the rover's cameras.

Their computer model works by analyzing the moon's tiny vibrations, or wobbles, as it orbits its parent planet.

From there, you can calculate how much water, ice, and rock is inside. A small wobble means the moon is mostly solid, while a large wobble means its icy surface is floating in an ocean of liquid water.

When combined with gravity data, the model calculates the depth of the ocean and the thickness of the overlying ice.

Dr. Doug Hemingway, a planetary scientist at the University of Texas Geophysical Institute, said: “If we find that Uranus' moons have an inland ocean, it means there are a huge number of potentially habitable worlds across the galaxy. It may mean,” he said.

“The discovery of oceans of liquid water on Uranus' moons will change our thinking about the range of possibilities for life.”

All large moons of the solar system, including the moons of Uranus, are tidally locked.

This means that the same side always faces the parent planet while orbiting, as the gravity matches their rotation.

However, this does not mean that the satellite's rotation is completely fixed; all tidally locked satellites will oscillate back and forth during their orbit.

Determining the extent of the wobble is key to learning whether Uranus' moons have oceans, and if so, how large.

A satellite with an ocean of liquid water splashing inside will wobble more than one that is entirely solid. However, even the largest oceans experience only small wobbles. The moon's rotation can shift by just a few hundred feet as it passes through its orbit.

This is still enough for a passing spacecraft to detect it. In fact, this technique was previously used to confirm that Saturn's moon Enceladus has an internal ocean.

To find out whether the same technique would work on Uranus, Dr. Hemingway and his colleague Dr. Francis Nimmo of the University of California, Santa Cruz performed theoretical calculations on Uranus's five moons, using a variety of the most I came up with a plausible scenario.

Detecting smaller oceans means the spacecraft will need to get closer or carry more powerful cameras.

“The next step is to extend the model to include measurements from other instruments and see how this improves the interior of the satellite,” Dr. Hemingway said.

of the team work Published in a magazine Geophysical Research Letters.

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DJ Hemingway and F. Nemo. 2024. Search for the underground ocean inside Uranus's moon using balance and gravity. Geophysical Research Letters 51 (18): e2024GL110409;doi: 10.1029/2024GL110409

This article is a version of a press release provided by the University of Texas.

Source: www.sci.news

New research suggests Voyager 2’s approach to Uranus in 1986 occurred during an uncommon solar event

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When NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft flew by Uranus in 1986, scientists got their first close glimpse of the giant icy planet. Alongside the discovery of new moons and rings, a puzzling new mystery faced scientists. The energetic particles around Uranus defied their understanding of how magnetic fields trap particle radiation. The cause of that special mystery is a cosmic coincidence, according to a new study. Just before Voyager 2's flyby, Uranus was found to have been affected by an unusual type of space weather that crushed and dramatically compressed the planet's magnetic field. Its magnetosphere.

The first panel of this artist's concept depicts how Uranus' magnetosphere operated before NASA's Voyager 2 flyby. The second panel shows that an unusual type of solar weather occurred during the 1986 flyby, giving scientists a biased view of the magnetosphere. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech.

The planetary magnetosphere (the region around a planet dominated by its magnetic field) influences the environment around the planet, and understanding its properties is important for mission planning.

Voyager 2's close encounter of Uranus reveals a unique magnetosphere that is highly asymmetric and appears to lack plasma, a common element in the magnetospheres of other planets, and has an unusually strong band of high-energy electrons It became.

The signatures from this single measurement have since been used as the basis for understanding Uranus's magnetic field, but these anomalies have been difficult to explain without complex physics.

“If Voyager 2 had arrived just a few days earlier, we would have seen a completely different magnetosphere on Uranus,” said Dr. Jamie Jasinski, a researcher at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

“The spacecraft observed Uranus in a situation that has a probability of only about 4%.”

Jasinski and his colleagues reanalyzed Voyager 2 data before the flyby and found that the spacecraft encountered Uranus shortly after a violent solar wind event that ejected streams of charged particles from the Sun's atmosphere.

This compressed Uranus's magnetosphere, creating a condition that only occurs 4% of the time.

In this state, we see a plasma-free magnetosphere with highly excited electron emission bands.

The authors suggest that two magnetospheric cycles may exist during solar minimum due to variations in Uranus' solar wind.

Additionally, the chances of Uranus' outermost major moons, Titania and Oberon, orbiting outside the magnetosphere may be very low, giving scientists the possibility of detecting an underground ocean without interference from the magnetosphere. There is.

“The 1986 flyby was full of surprises, and we were looking for an explanation for its unusual behavior,” said Dr. Linda Spilker, also of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

“The magnetosphere measured by Voyager 2 is just a snapshot in time.”

“This new study explains some of the apparent contradictions and will once again change our view of Uranus.”

of findings Published in today's magazine natural astronomy.

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JM Jasinski others. Unusual conditions in Uranus' magnetosphere during Voyager 2's flyby. Nat Astronpublished online on November 11, 2024. doi: 10.1038/s41550-024-02389-3

Source: www.sci.news

Our Sole Encounter with Uranus Occurred During a Peculiar Moment for Earth

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Uranus is more normal than we thought

NASA/Space Telescope Science Institute

Uranus’ strange magnetic field may be much less strange than astronomers first thought, and it could mean that Uranus’ largest moon is much more active and perhaps even has a global ocean It means that there is.

The only direct measurement of Uranus’s magnetic field was obtained by NASA’s Voyager 2 spacecraft, which flew close to the planet in 1986. The spacecraft’s measurements suggested that the magnetic field was skewed, meaning it was not aligned with the planet’s rotation, and that it was an anomalous field. It is rich in highly energetic electrons and lacks the plasma that is common in the magnetic fields of other gas giant planets like Jupiter. Astronomers at the time thought the results were so strange that they either invoked complex physics to explain the measurements or simply dismissed them as evidence that Voyager 2’s instruments had gone awry.

now, jamie jasinski Researchers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California reanalyzed Voyager 2 data and found that a rare explosion of solar wind that crushed Uranus’ magnetic field just before the spacecraft arrived may have distorted the data, causing the measurements to I discovered that it was disturbed. This means everything we thought we knew about Uranus’ magnetic field may be wrong, Jasinski says. “This is almost like resetting everything,” he says.

Jasinski and his team found that the solar wind compressed Uranus’s magnetic field to a size that typically occurs only 4 percent of the time. But for the past 40 years, scientists have assumed that is the normal state of affairs. Jasinski says the collapse of the magnetic field explains some of the strange results so far, including the lack of plasma and high-energy electrons.

If there is indeed plasma in Uranus’ magnetic field, and Voyager 2 just happened to miss it, it’s possible that not all of it came from the planet itself. Some may have come from Uranus’ moons, the largest of which are called Titania and Oberon. Until now, these moons were thought to be inert, but new research leaves open the possibility that they may be geologically active after all. This is consistent with recent calculations that suggest there may be a hidden ocean on the moon. “The solar wind may have wiped out all evidence of an active satellite just before the flyby occurred,” Jasinski said.

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Source: www.newscientist.com

Hubble Space Telescope and New Horizons team up to study Uranus

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In a new study, astronomers compared high-resolution images of Uranus from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope with more distant views from NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft. Their results could serve as “ground truth” observations to use as a baseline for interpreting exoplanet direct imaging data from future observatories.

In this image, two three-dimensional shapes of Uranus (top) are compared to the actual views of Uranus from Hubble (bottom left) and New Horizons (bottom right). Image credits: NASA/ESA/STScI/Samantha Hasler, MIT/Amy Simon, NASA-GSFC/New Horizons Planetary Science Theme Team/Joseph DePasquale, STScI/Joseph Olmsted, STScI.

Direct imaging of exoplanets is an important technique for understanding their potential habitability and provides new clues to the origin and formation of our own solar system.

Astronomers use both direct imaging and spectroscopy to collect light from observed planets and compare their brightness at different wavelengths.

However, exoplanets are notoriously difficult to image because they are so far away.

Their images are just pinpoints, so they aren’t as detailed as our close-up view of the world around the sun.

Astronomers can also directly image exoplanets only in “partial phase,” when only part of the planet is illuminated by its star as seen from Earth.

Uranus was an ideal target as a test to understand future long-range observations of exoplanets by other telescopes for several reasons.

First, many known exoplanets are gas giants with similar properties. Also, at the time of the observation, New Horizons was on the far side of Uranus, 10.5 billion kilometers (6.5 billion miles) away, and was able to study the twilight crescent moon. This is not possible from Earth.

At that distance, New Horizons’ view of the planet was just a few pixels wide of its color camera (Multispectral Visible Imaging Camera).

Meanwhile, Hubble’s high resolution allowed it to see atmospheric features such as clouds and storms on the dayside of the gas world from its low orbit, 2.7 billion kilometers (1.7 billion miles) from Uranus. .

Samantha Hassler, an astronomer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said: “We expected Uranus to look different depending on the observation filter, but New Horizons data taken from different perspectives actually show that Uranus looks different than expected.'' It turned out to be much darker than that.”

The gas giant planets in our solar system have dynamic and variable atmospheres with changing cloud cover. How common is this in exoplanets?

Knowing the details of what Uranus’ clouds looked like from Hubble will allow researchers to test what they can interpret from New Horizons’ data.

In the case of Uranus, both Hubble and New Horizons observed that the brightness does not change as the planet rotates. This indicates that the cloud characteristics are not changing due to the rotation of the planet.

But the significance of New Horizons’ detection has to do with how the planet reflects light at a different phase than what Hubble and other observatories on or near Earth can see.

New Horizons showed that exoplanets can be dimmer than predicted at partial and high phase angles, and that their atmospheres reflect light differently at partial phase.

“The groundbreaking New Horizons study of Uranus from a vantage point that cannot be observed by any other means adds to the mission’s treasure trove of new scientific knowledge and, like many other data sets obtained on the mission, will Dr. Alan Stern, Principal Investigator of New Horizons and Research Scientist at the Southwest Research Institute, said:

“NASA’s next Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, scheduled to launch by 2027, will use a coronagraph to block out starlight and directly observe gas giant exoplanets,” Hassler said. Ta.

“NASA’s Habitable World Observatory, in its early planning stages, will be the first telescope specifically designed to search for biosignatures in the atmospheres of rocky Earth-sized planets orbiting other stars. .”

“Studying how known benchmarks like Uranus appear in distant images will help us have more solid expectations as we prepare for these future missions. And it will help our It’s critical to success.”

Scientists are result this week’s DPS56Annual Meeting of the Planetary Science Division of the American Astronomical Society.

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S. Hassler others. 2024. Observations of Uranus at high phase angles by New Horizons Ralph/MVIC. DPS56

This article has been adapted from the original release by NASA.

Source: www.sci.news

Is it possible for them to ignite Uranus and steal the elusive diamonds?

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Dead Planets Society is a podcast that takes some crazy ideas for how to tinker with the universe and tests their effects against the laws of physics, from snapping the moon in half to causing doomsday events with gravitational waves. apple, Spotify Or check out our podcast page.

Uranus and Neptune are so similar that we don't need both. That's the idea behind this episode of Dead Planets Society, in which hosts Chelsea Whyte and Leah Crane decide to light Uranus on fire.

There's a scientific justification for this, of course. For one thing, burning material and examining the light from it, a process called spectroscopy, is one of the best ways to determine its chemical composition. And because the depths of ice giants remain murky and mysterious, burning up the outer layers could reveal what's underneath.

Before you reach for the matches, let's talk about our special guest, planetary scientist Pole Barn That could be tricky, says a researcher at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri: Uranus' outer layers lack the oxygen needed for combustion, he explains, so pumping in more oxygen than is contained in the entire solar system might not be helpful.

But the interior of Uranus isn't just shrouded in mystery – it may also be full of iceberg-like diamond chunks. This quickly changes the host's focus: this is no longer a fireworks mission, but a heist.

While the planet's outer layers would still need to be removed, the most efficient way would probably be to collide it with another planet. Viewed from Earth, this would be seen as a flash of light, a glowing cloud of steam, and perhaps a bright tail forming behind Uranus. The impact would need to be carefully planned so as not to shatter the planet and its diamonds.

But a suitable collision could accomplish both the new goal of obtaining Uranus' diamonds and the original goal of exposing and studying its depths. It could also destroy the entire solar system, but when has the Society of Dead Planets ever worried about that?

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Source: www.newscientist.com

New Moons Found Around Uranus and Neptune by Astronomers

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The three newly discovered moons (S/2023 U1, S/2002 N5, and S/2021 N1) are the faintest ever discovered around Uranus and Neptune using ground-based telescopes.

Discovery image of Uranus’ moon S/2023 U1 using the Magellan Telescope on November 4, 2023. Image credit: Scott Sheppard.

The new Uranian moon, tentatively named S/2023 U1, was first discovered by astronomers at the Carnegie Institution for Science on November 4, 2023. Scott Sheppard using the Magellan Telescope at the Las Campanas Observatory.

At just 8 km (5 miles), it is probably the smallest of Uranus’ moons. It takes 680 days to circumnavigate the ice giant.

S/2023 U1 will eventually be named after a character from a Shakespeare play, following Uranus’ outer moon naming conventions.

This discovery brings the total number of moons on this giant icy planet to 28.

Dr. Sheppard also used the Magellan telescope to discover S/2002 N5, the brighter of two newly discovered Neptune moons.

The moon’s diameter is about 23 km (14.3 miles), and it takes almost nine years to circumnavigate the ice giant.

The dimmer moons of Neptune were discovered by Dr. Sheppard and his colleagues using the Subaru telescope.

The star, named S/2021 N1, is about 14 km (8.7 miles) in diameter and has an orbital period of almost 27 years.

S/2002 N5 and S/2021 N1 were both first seen in September 2021.

Both have enduring names based on the 50 Nereid sea goddesses from Greek mythology.

“The orbit around Neptune of S/2002 N5 is determined using observations from 2021, 2022, and 2023, indicating that it was discovered near Neptune in 2003, but is still orbiting the planet. “We were able to trace it back to an object that was lost before it was confirmed,” Sheppard said.

S/2023 U1, S/2002 N5, and S/2021 N1 have far-flung, eccentric, and inclined orbits that occurred when Uranus and Neptune were formed from rings of dust and debris surrounding them, or it suggests that they were captured by the gravity of these planets shortly after our sun is in its infancy.

All giant planets in our solar system, regardless of their size or formation process, have a similar composition of outer moons.

“Even Uranus, which is tilted sideways, has a moon population similar to other giant planets orbiting the sun,” Dr. Sheppard said.

“And Neptune, which likely captured the distant Kuiper Belt object Triton, an event that could disrupt its lunar system, has an outer moon that looks similar to its neighbors. “

This new moon also indicates the existence of a dynamic orbital group of outer moons around Uranus and Neptune, similar to those seen around Jupiter and Saturn.

At Uranus, S/2023 U1 has an orbit similar to Caliban and Stefano.

At Neptune, S/2021 N1 has an orbit similar to Psamate and Neso, and S/2002 N5 has an orbit similar to Thao and Laomedeia.

These groupings suggest that the once larger parent moon was shattered, perhaps by a past collision with a comet or asteroid, leaving shattered debris in an orbit similar to the original larger moon. There is.

Many small lunar fragments are likely present in these groups, but they are generally too small to be efficiently observed with current technology.

These groupings of moons indicate that the early solar system was a very chaotic place, with constant movement and collisions between different objects.

Source: www.sci.news

A recently discovered tiny moon orbits Neptune and Uranus

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Uranus (left) and Neptune (right) have several more moons

NASA, ESA, Mark Showalter (SETI Institute), Amy Simon (NASA-GSFC), Andrew I. Hsu, Michael H. Wong (University of California, Berkeley)

Astronomers have discovered new moons around Uranus and Neptune for the first time in 10 years. These are the faintest moons ever discovered orbiting a planet, confirming a long-held idea about moons in the outer solar system.

Scott Shepherd from the Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington, D.C., discovered these moons using the Magellan Telescope in Chile and confirmed them using several other large telescopes around the world. “We looked about four times deeper than anyone has ever looked,” Shepherd said. “These satellites are at the edge of our capabilities. They’re just faint, faint points of light.”

Typically, when looking for the moon, you can only get a maximum exposure of about 5 minutes before it becomes overexposed and the moon’s movement renders it useless. Shepard and his team got around this problem by taking many of these five-minute images in quick succession, observing them for hours, and then combining the darker parts of the images. This allowed them to find dim points of light shining from the faintest moons ever discovered, as well as the smallest moons ever discovered around each planet.

The new moon around Uranus is tentatively named S/2023 U1, but will eventually be given the name of a Shakespearean character, along with the planet’s other moons. It is only about 8 kilometers in diameter and orbits once every 680 Earth days.

One of the new moons around Neptune is called S/2021 N1, and we await its official name from Greek mythology. With a diameter of about 14 kilometers, it takes about 27 Earth years to orbit the planet, making it the farthest moon from its host planet ever discovered. This is also the darkest moon ever discovered.

Discovery image of Uranus’ new moon S/2023 U1 with scattered light from Uranus and trails from background stars

Scott S. Shepherd/Carnegie Institution for Science

The brighter, larger moon discovered orbiting Neptune is called S/2002 N5. As its name suggests, this satellite was first discovered more than 20 years before, but was lost before astronomers could confirm its orbit. “The moon can get lost really easily,” Shepard says. “Basically, you need really good weather, your telescopes need to work perfectly, and everything needs to go well to detect these satellites.” If something goes wrong and a planned observation is lost, the satellite moves out of orbit and becomes very difficult to find again.

Each of the three new moons has an orbit similar to the other two moons in its planetary system, and these fellow travelers form small groups that orbit together. This means that each of these groups likely formed together when larger moons broke up during the early solar system chaos.

“Until now, it was unclear whether Uranus and Neptune had a group of exomoons like Jupiter and Saturn,” Shepard said. “We believe these are debris from satellites that were once much larger, but we’ll probably find many more smaller satellites.” Unfortunately, we’re reaching the limits of what we can discover with current technology, he says it may take even longer before these smaller moons are discovered around Uranus and Neptune.

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Source: www.newscientist.com

Newly color-corrected image shows that Uranus and Neptune have a greenish-blue hue

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The so-called ice giants Uranus and Neptune are the most distant giant planets in the solar system. Our knowledge of these worlds was revolutionized by his flybys of NASA’s Voyager 2 spacecraft on January 24, 1986 and August 25, 1989, respectively. Since these Voyager encounters, our knowledge of the visible appearance of these worlds has come primarily from images reconstructed from observations from Voyager 2 Imaging Science System (ISS), images were recorded with several separate filters ranging from ultraviolet to orange. In these images, Uranus appears pale green and Neptune appears dark blue, and the perception of the relative colors of these planets has become generally accepted. However, new research has revealed that the two ice giants are actually much closer in color.

Voyager 2/ISS images of Uranus and Neptune, released shortly after the Voyager 2 flybys in 1986 and 1989, respectively, were used in this study to determine the best estimates of the true colors of these planets. The filtered image was compared with the reprocessed version.Image credit: Irwin other., doi: 10.1093/mnras/stad3761.

Professor Patrick Irwin of the University of Oxford said: “While the well-known Voyager 2 image of Uranus was released in close to ‘true’ color, the image of Neptune has actually been stretched and enhanced. As a result, it was artificially too blue.”

“Although artificially saturated colors were known to planetary scientists at the time and images were published with descriptive captions, over time that distinction has been lost. I lost it.”

“By applying our model to the original data, we were able to reconstruct the most accurate representation to date of the colors of both Neptune and Uranus.”

In the study, Professor Irwin and his colleagues space telescope imaging spectrometer On board the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope (STIS) Multi-unit spectroscopic explorer (MUSE) ESO’s Very Large Telescope.

This means that the STIS and MUSE observations can be processed unambiguously to determine the actual apparent colors of Uranus and Neptune.

Astronomers used these data to rebalance the composite color images recorded by Voyager 2’s camera. Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3).

This revealed that Uranus and Neptune are actually quite similar shades of greenish-blue.

The main difference is that Neptune has a slight hint of additional blue. Models revealed that this is due to Neptune’s thin haze layer.

The study also provides an answer to the long-standing mystery of why Uranus’ color changes slightly during the sun’s 84-year revolution.

The authors first reached their conclusion after comparing images of the ice giant with measurements of its brightness recorded in blue and green wavelengths from 1950 to 2016 by the Lowell Observatory in Arizona.

These measurements showed that Uranus appears slightly greener during the summer and winter solstices, when one of the planet’s poles points toward our star.

However, at the vernal equinox, when the sun is above the equator, the sun takes on a somewhat blue hue.

Part of the reason for this is known to be because Uranus has a very unusual rotation.

During its orbit, it effectively rotates almost sideways. This means that during the planet’s summer solstice, either the north or south pole points almost directly in the direction of the sun and Earth.

This is therefore important because changes in reflectivity in the polar regions have a large effect on Uranus’ overall brightness as seen from Earth.

Astronomers have not been very clear about how or why this reflectance differs.

This led the researchers to develop a model that compares the spectra of Uranus’ polar and equatorial regions.

They found that in polar regions, green and red wavelengths are more reflective than blue wavelengths. Part of the reason is that red-absorbing methane is about half as abundant near the poles as it is at the equator.

But this wasn’t enough to fully explain the color change, so the researchers looked at the gradually thickening icy surface of the planet’s sunlit pole during the summer. We added a new variable to the model in the form of a haze “hood”. We move from the vernal equinox to the summer solstice.

Astronomers believe it is likely made up of particles of methane ice.

When simulated in the model, the ice particles further increased reflection in green and red wavelengths at the poles, providing an explanation for why Uranus is green at the summer solstice.

“This is the first study to match quantitative models with image data to explain why Uranus’s color changes during its orbit,” Professor Irwin said.

“Thus, we prove that Uranus at the summer solstice is greener, not only because methane abundance is reduced in the polar regions, but also because the thickness of brightly scattering methane ice particles is increased. it was done.”

“The misperceptions of Neptune’s colors and the unusual color changes of Uranus have puzzled us for decades. This comprehensive study finally puts an end to both problems. ” said Dr. Heidi Hummel, a researcher at the Association of Universities for Astronomical Research (AURA).

of result will appear in Royal Astronomical Society Monthly Notices.

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Patrick G.J. Irwin other. 2024. Model the seasonal cycle of Uranus’ color and size and compare it to Neptune. MNRAS 527 (4): 11521-11538; doi: 10.1093/mnras/stad3761

Source: www.sci.news

Webb’s groundbreaking perspective on the concealed rings of Uranus

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The James Webb Space Telescope captures revealing images of Uranus

The James Webb Space Telescope has taken detailed images of Uranus, revealing its dynamic atmosphere, including rings, moons, and storms. This enhanced view, in contrast to previous images, shows a more active Uranus, with a pronounced seasonal polar cloud cap and some storms. These observations are essential for understanding the planet’s complex atmosphere and may also provide insight into the study of exoplanets.

Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI

New view reveals strange and dynamic ice world

When Voyager 2 passed Uranus In 1986, the planet appeared as a featureless, bright blue sphere. Now, Mr. Webb shows a more dynamic and interesting infrared view. Tree rings, the moon, storms, and the bright polar cap grace these new images. Because Uranus is tilted sideways, its polar caps appear more prominent as Uranus’s poles point towards the Sun and receive more sunlight. This period is called the winter solstice. Uranus will reach her next summer solstice in 2028, and astronomers will observe changes in the planet’s atmosphere. Studying this giant ice cube can help astronomers understand the formation and meteorology of similarly sized planets around other suns.

This image of Uranus taken from the NIRCam (Near Infrared Camera) on NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope shows the planet and its rings in new clarity. The planet’s seasonal polar cap shines bright and white, and Webb’s exquisite sensitivity resolves Uranus’ dim inner and outer rings, including the planet’s closest very faint and diffuse ring, the Zeta ring.

Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI

Webb Space Telescope rings with ringed planet Uranus on holiday

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope recently set its sights on the unusual and mysterious Uranus, an ice giant spinning on its side. Webb used other atmospheric features to capture this dynamic world, including rings, the moon, storms, and seasonal polar caps. This image expands on his two-color version released earlier this year, adding a wavelength range for an even more detailed look.

Uranus’ rings and moon in new light

With exquisite sensitivity, Webb captured Uranus’ dim inner and outer rings, including the elusive Zeta ring, the planet’s closest very faint and diffuse ring. It also photographed many of the planet’s 27 known moons, and several smaller moons were also visible in the ring.

At visible wavelengths observed by Voyager 2 in the 1980s, Uranus appeared as a gentle blue sphere. At infrared wavelengths, Webb reveals a strange and dynamic icy world full of exciting atmospheric features.

This image of Uranus taken with the Webb Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) shows a compass arrow, scale bar, and color key for reference.

Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI

Atmospheric phenomena and seasonal changes

One of the most impressive of these is the planet’s seasonal arctic cloud cap. Compared to images on the web from earlier this year, these new images make it easier to see some of the details on the cap. These include a bright white inner cap and dark lanes at the bottom of the polar cap toward lower latitudes. Several bright storms are also visible near and below the southern boundary of the polar cap. The number of these storms, and how often and where they appear in Uranus’ atmosphere, is likely due to a combination of seasonal and meteorological influences.

Polar caps become more visible as the planet’s poles begin to move toward the sun and receive more sunlight as the planet approaches the summer solstice. Uranus will reach her next summer solstice in 2028, but astronomers are keen to observe possible changes to the structure of these landforms. Webb helps disentangle the seasonal and meteorological influences that affect Uranus’ storms. This is important for helping astronomers understand the planet’s complex atmosphere.

Uranus’s unique tilt and future research

Because Uranus rotates on its side at an angle of about 98 degrees, it experiences some of the most extreme seasons in the solar system. For almost a quarter of Uranus’s year, the sun shines above one pole, and the other half of the Earth plunges into a dark winter that lasts her 21 years. Webb’s unparalleled infrared resolution and sensitivity now allows astronomers to observe Uranus and its unique features with groundbreaking new clarity. These details, especially those of the close Zeta ring, will be invaluable in planning future missions to Uranus.

Uranus: proxy for exoplanet research

Uranus also serves as a proxy for studying the nearly 2,000 similarly sized exoplanets discovered in the past few decades. this “exoplanet ‘In our backyard’ helps astronomers understand how planets of this size work, what their meteorology is like and how they formed Masu. This helps us understand our own solar system as a whole by placing it in a larger context.

The James Webb Space Telescope is the world’s highest space science observatory. Webb unravels the mysteries of our solar system, looks to distant worlds around other stars, and explores the mysterious structure and origins of our universe and our place in it. Webb is an international program led by: NASA With our partner ESA (european space agency) and the Canadian Space Agency.


Source: scitechdaily.com

JWST Captures Spectacular Image of Uranus Revealing 13 Rings and 9 Moons

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Uranus showing all its rings and 9 of the planet’s 27 moons

NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI

This amazing shot of Uranus taken by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) gives us the most complete view of Uranus yet, revealing its rings and turbulent atmosphere in stunning detail .

In April, JWST used infrared sensors to image Uranus, revealing more of the ice giant’s rock and dust rings, which have only been directly imaged twice before, by the Voyager 2 spacecraft and by Earth’s Keck Observatory. Now it can be observed clearly. Eleven of Uranus’s 13 known rings were visible in this image, but the last two were too dark to see.

JWST has now followed up on these observations using a wider field of view and more wavelengths of infrared light, revealing the rings in even more detail and showing us the elusive final two rings.

The diagram above also shows nine of Uranus’ 27 moons. These are all tilted away from the Sun at her 98 degree angle, the same as the planet itself. Another new image from JWST below shows five more moons (Oberon, Umbriel, Ariel, Miranda, and Titania) shining like blue stars, bringing the total shown to 14.

This JWST photo of Uranus shows five more moons, shining like blue stars around the planet. They are (clockwise from top) Oberon, Umbriel, Ariel, Miranda, and Titania.

STScI Copyright: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI

The planet’s tilt causes long stretches of sunlight and darkness on different sides of Uranus, with each season lasting 21 Earth years and producing polar caps and atmospheric storms. Both can be seen more clearly in this picture. The storm lies just below the southern edge of the broad white polar cap, appearing as a white wisp against a blue background.

Although it takes Uranus 84 years to orbit the Sun, it only takes 17 hours to complete its rotation, allowing its atmosphere and moons to travel faster than standard telescopic exposures. Astronomers created the image above by combining long and short exposure times with JWST to smooth out the changing features.

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Source: www.newscientist.com