Jakarta –
Planet Uranus is one of the planets with rings that surround it. NASA’s James Webb Telescope managed to capture images of 11 of Uranus’s 13 rings in its image capture.
So, let’s take a look at the information regarding Uranus’ rings below.
Discovery of Uranus Rings
The Uranus ring system was first discovered by the American astronomer James L Elliot and his colleagues from Earth in 1977 as written on the Britannica page. The rings of Uranus were discovered 9 years before Voyager 2 (the spacecraft whose mission was to reach Uranus, Saturn, Neptune) and were discovered during the occultation of stars by Uranus.
A stellar occultation occurs when Uranus passes between the star and Earth temporarily blocking the starlight. The discovery of Uranus’ rings occurred during the event because they observed the star briefly dimming five times.
This is because the star dims a considerable distance above Uranus’s atmosphere both before and after Uranus occults the star. This decrease in brightness let researchers know that Uranus has five narrow rings surrounding it.
Then research was carried out from Earth which revealed four additional rings owned by Uranus. Written on the CNN page, Uranus’ nine rings are classified as main rings.
Meanwhile, the other two rings belonging to Uranus were discovered when the Voyager 2 mission passed in 1986. Images of these rings are more difficult to capture because of their dusty structure.
The most recent discovery of Uranus’s rings continued until 2007, when NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope captured two other faint rings. This causes that to date there are 13 known rings of Uranus.
The James Webb Telescope Sight
James Webb, the name of NASA’s space telescope, recently took stunning pictures of the solar system’s ice giant, the planet Uranus. Through NASA’s website, the new images presented show dramatic rings and bright features in the planet’s atmosphere.
Webb’s data show the observatory’s unprecedented sensitivity of the two faintest dusty rings. Images of the two rings had previously only been captured by the Voyager 2 spacecraft as it flew past Uranus in 1986 and the Keck Observatory with advanced adaptive optics.
The infrared image from the Webb near infrared camera (NIRCam) combines data from the two filters at 1.4 and 3.0 microns shown in blue and orange. So it can be seen that Uranus displays a blue hue in the resulting representative color images.
When Voyager 2 looked toward Uranus, its camera showed a nearly shapeless green-blue orb in visible wavelengths. The additional infrared wavelengths and sensitivity from Webb help researchers to see more details and show just how dynamic Uranus’s atmosphere is.
Through the page of The European Space Agency (ESA) on the right side of the planet there is a bright area at the pole facing the Sun and known as the polar cap. This polar cap is unique to Uranus in that it appears when the pole is exposed to direct sunlight in summer and disappears in autumn.
Webb’s data will help scientists understand the mysterious mechanism behind the feature. Webb has revealed a surprising aspect of the polar cap in that there is a subtle increase in brightness in the center of the cap.
The sensitivity of Webb’s NIRCam and the longer wavelengths it can see is the reason behind the recognition of Uranus’ enhanced polar features. This is because this feature has not previously been seen with other powerful telescopes such as the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and the Keck Observatory.
On the edge of the polar cap are bright clouds and some of the fainter features can be seen just beyond the edge of the cap, namely a second, very bright cloud visible on the left side of the planet. These clouds are typical of Uranus at infrared wavelengths and are likely connected to storm activity.
Webb was able to capture 11 of Uranus’s 13 known rings. Some of these rings are so bright as seen by Webb that when they come close together they appear to coalesce and become larger rings.
In addition to capturing Uranus’ rings, Webb also captured Uranus’ 27 known moons. Most of these moons are too small and dim to see from here. The brightest six months are identified in this wide view image.
Through the Smithsonian Magazine’s page, it is known that scientists predict that they can learn more about Uranus’ storms and environment.
According to Michael Merrifield, an astronomer at the University of Nottingham in the UK, they will be able to monitor their appearance over time to see what effect the tipped-over rotation will have on weather patterns.
It is known that Webb orbits the Sun from a point as far as 1.6 million kilometers from Earth, but this distance is not too far when compared to several other targets. The telescope has observed exoplanets, dying stars and distant galaxies that have changed ideas about the early universe.
The new image of Uranus was taken during a 12-minute exposure on February 6, 2023. It turns out that the image was taken when the Earth was 2.9 billion kilometers from the planet Uranus, as stated by Isaac Schultz reported by Gizmodo.
Uranus is an ice giant, estimated to be mostly (80% or more) composed of ice, methane and ammonia surrounding a rocky core, according to NASA. The sky is dominated by storm clouds, although they are not as cloudy as the gas giant Jupiter. It is larger in diameter than Neptune, another ice giant, but slightly less in mass.
Watch Video “NASA Releases Pictures of the Beauty of Planet Uranus“
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