Webb Telescope Takes Impressive Photos of Uranus | Rhewal

(Photos: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI)

Nasa’s James Webb Space Telescope took an impressive photo of the ice giant Uranus.

In the photo, 11 of the planet’s 13 rings can be clearly seen. According to Nasa, the Webb telescope has also captured many of Uranus’ 27 known moons.

Uranus, the seventh planet from the sun, is unique in that it rotates on its side. This causes extreme seasons as the planet’s poles experience many years of constant sunlight, followed by an equal number of years of total darkness.

Uranus takes 84 years to orbit the sun and its northern summer will be in 2028.

In the new photos, there is an area of ​​brightening on the right side of the planet. This is known as a polar cap and is unique to Uranus. It seems to appear when the pole enters direct sunlight in the summer and it disappears again in autumn.

The Webb telescope also revealed a surprising aspect of the polar cap: a subtle brightening in the center.

At the edge of the polar cap lies a bright cloud. A second very bright cloud is seen to the planet’s left. According to Nasa, such clouds are typical for Uranus in infrared wavelengths, and are probably associated with storm activity.

Uranus is characterized as an ice giant due to the chemical composition of its interior. Most of its mass is thought to be a hot, dense liquid of “ice-cold” materials – water, methane and ammonia – above a small rocky core.

(Photos: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI)