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Telescope confirms likelihood of lunar collisions in 500,000 years Astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope say they have discovered two tiny new moons and two faint new rings spinning around the planet Uranus. The finds bring the current tallies for the remote blue world to more than two dozen moons and 13 rings. The scientists said Hubble images have also confirmed instabilities in the Uranian system that could eventually lead to lunar collisions. "The destruction and accumulation of moons and rings is very exciting," said Jack Lissauer of the NASA Ames Research Center at Moffett Field in Mountain View, a...

New orbital data on two moons of Uranus and two rings suggest the seventh planet may be a more chaotic place than thought. The two new moons, dubbed Cupid and Mab, were discovered in 2003 using the Hubble Space Telescope and archived images from the Voyager 2 spacecraft. Since then, the moons' discoverers, Mark Showalter of the SETI Institute and Jack Lissauer of NASA Ames Research Center, both in California, US, have refined the orbits of the moons and spotted two previously undetected dust rings. “To me, the exciting part of this discovery is the fact that there were these...

Two more rings discovered around Uranus First additions to planet's ring system in nearly 20 years Updated: 2:03 p.m. ET Dec. 22, 2005 Astronomers aided by the Hubble Space Telescope have spied two more rings encircling Uranus, the first additions to the planet’s ring system in nearly two decades. The faint, dusty rings orbit outside of Uranus’ previously known rings, but within the orbits of its large moons, said Mark Showalter, an astronomer at the SETI Institute in Mountain View, Calif., who made the discovery. Details will appear on the journal Science's Web site, in advance of print publication. The...

Uranus may be responsible for recent devastating Asian sea quakes because the mystery-shrouded "planet of calamity" is unusually close to the Earth, tabloid newspaper readers in Germany were warned on Wednesday.

A composite image of Uranus taken from the Keck telescope shows two sides of the seventh planet and its rings. First, astronomers thought Uranus was just one star among many in the night sky. Even after 1781, when they knew better, there was little they could see – the seventh planet was too far away.

Images of Uranus reveal ring, atmospheric fireworks Date: Monday, November 15, 2004 @ 11:30 AM PST Topic: Space As summer draws to a close in the southern hemisphere of Uranus, storm clouds are brewing in the upper atmosphere, northern hemisphere winds are gusting to 250 miles per hour, and the planet's rings are getting brighter every day. This weather report comes from researchers using the Keck II 10-meter telescope atop Mauna Kea volcano in Hawaii, where recent observations are proving that Uranus is not the ''boring and unchanging'' planet people have assumed. From University of California : Keck Telescope images...

Uranus: Whacky weather, odd rings Observations with the Keck II Telescope show the solar system's seventh planet still holds a few surprises. Francis Reddy November 10, 2004 In the southern hemisphere of Uranus, as summer draws to a close, methane storm clouds brew beneath the planet's thick blue-green haze. New observations from two research teams using the Keck II 10-meter telescope atop Mauna Kea in Hawaii reveal unprecedented cloud behavior, fast winds, and a unique ring system. Uranus has a reputation of being, well, dull. "When the Voyager 2 spacecraft flew by Uranus in 1986, it saw almost no discrete...

New images of the planet Uranus reveal more diversity in cloud features than ever seen before. The new images, from the Keck Telescope in Hawaii, provide insight into some of the most enigmatic weather in the solar system, researchers said today at a meeting of the Division for Planetary Sciences of the American Astronomical Society. "The cloud features range from small to large, from dim and diffuse to sharp and bright, from rapidly evolving systems to stable features that last for years," said Lawrence Sromovsky of the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Space Science and Engineering Center. A large storm in the...

If Uranus seems closer this evening, it is. Today, the planet (its name is pronounced you-rah-nus) is at its closest point to Earth, only 1.77 billion miles away -- 19 times the distance from the Earth to the sun. Patient people with binoculars can find this blue-green world in Aquarius. Some notes: Once you know which dot of light is Uranus, you might be able to find it with your eyes alone -- but only if you have excellent vision and a clear, dark sky away from city light pollution, says Newsday. Next week, once the moon is out of...

New Hubble Photos of Uranus and Neptune Jan 22, 2004 - Image credit: Hubble Atmospheric features on Uranus and Neptune are revealed in images taken with the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph and the Advanced Camera for Surveys aboard NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. The observations were taken in August 2003. The top row reveals Uranus and Neptune in natural colors, showing the planets as they would appear if we could see them through a telescope. The images are made of exposures taken with filters sensitive to red, green, and blue light. In the bottom images, astronomers used different color filters...

TINY MOONS DISCOVERED AT URANUS Astronomers using NASAs Hubble Space Telescope discovered two of the smallest moons yet found orbiting Uranus, NASA announced. The two moons, each about 12 to 16 kilometers in diameter, are so faint they were not detected by the Voyager 2 spacecraft, which discovered 10 small moons when it flew by Uranus in 1986. Uranus now has 24 known moons. Astronomers hope to learn more about the orbits of the moons and their interaction with other Uranus moons with further Hubble observations. They also want to understand what role the newly discovered moons may play in...

Astronomers have found two of the smallest moons ever spotted around Uranus, brining the distant planet's satellite tally to 24, the third most in the solar system. The moons are 8 to 10 miles across (12 to 16 km) -- about the size of San Francisco -- and were discovered with the Hubble Space Telescope. With greater technology, astronomers are finding smaller moons around the giant planets with remarkable frequency, especially over the past two years. Jupiter leads the way with more than 50 known moons, Saturn has more than 30. More moons are sure to be found as the...

Tuesday, 31 December, 2002, 11:34 GMTPlanet Uranus caught on VLT A picture showing Uranus and moons (pic: ESO) The "Very Large Telescope" (VLT) has caught a remarkable image of the planet Uranus circled by some of its moons. The rings of the planet - which is 3,000 million kilometres away from Earth - were clearly displayed in the image. The rings are almost undetectable from Earth in visible light. The VLT is located at the European Southern Observatory's Paranal Observatory in Chile. The image was obtained in near-infrared, and contains seven of its moons. VLT is based at Paranal in...