Space & Astronomy

James Webb Telescope captures highly impressive image of Uranus

By T.K. Randall
April 11, 2023 ·  5 comments

Uranus like you've never seen it before. Image Credit: NASA Like a blue gemstone shining in the night sky, the innate beauty of Uranus has been brought into sharp focus this week thanks to the release of a new image captured by the James Webb Space Telescope.

Most notably, the image shows the seventh planet's enigmatic rings as well as several of its moons including Ariel, Miranda, Umbriel, Titania and Oberon.

"This planet is characterized as an ice giant due to the chemical make-up of its interior," NASA wrote."Most of its mass is thought to be a hot, dense fluid of 'icy' materials - water, methane, and ammonia - above a small rocky core."

"Uranus has 13 known rings and 11 of them are visible in this Webb image. Some of these rings are so bright with Webb that when they are close together, they appear to merge into a larger ring."

"Nine are classed as the main rings of the planet, and two are the fainter dusty rings (such as the diffuse zeta ring closest to the planet) that weren't discovered until the 1986 flyby by Voyager 2."

Source: Lad Bible | Comments (5)

Tags: Uranus