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NASA Just Got a Rare Look Inside Uranus – Here’s What They Found
Scitech Daily ^ | May 12, 2025 | NASA

Posted on 05/12/2025 5:07:55 AM PDT by Red Badger

This image of Uranus from NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) on NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope exquisitely captures Uranus’s seasonal north polar cap and dim inner and outer rings. This Webb image also shows 9 of the planet’s 27 moons – clockwise starting at 2 o’clock, they are: Rosalind, Puck, Belinda, Desdemona, Cressida, Bianca, Portia, Juliet, and Perdita. Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI

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A rare celestial alignment in April 2025 gave NASA scientists the chance to study Uranus in exceptional detail as it passed in front of a distant star.

This stellar occultation, visible only from parts of western North America, allowed researchers to measure changes in Uranus’ atmosphere that haven’t been studied this thoroughly in decades.

Rare Uranus Event Offers a Glimpse Into Its Atmosphere On April 7, Uranus moved perfectly between Earth and a distant star, creating a rare cosmic event known as a stellar occultation. But for NASA scientists, this wasn’t just a beautiful alignment. It was a golden opportunity to study the mysterious ice giant in ways we haven’t been able to in over 30 years.

By watching how the star’s light dimmed and brightened as it passed behind Uranus, scientists were able to measure key features of the planet’s atmosphere, like its temperature, pressure, and density, in incredible detail. This flickering of starlight creates something called a light curve, and it’s a powerful tool for unlocking secrets hidden high in the planet’s skies.

Artist’s illustration showing a distant star going out of sight as it is eclipsed by Uranus – an event known as a planetary stellar occultation. Credit: NASA/Advanced Concepts Laboratory

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A Light Curve Unlocks Atmospheric Secrets

“Uranus passed in front of a star that is about 400 light years from Earth,” said William Saunders, planetary scientist at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, and science principal investigator and analysis lead, for what NASA’s team calls the Uranus Stellar Occultation Campaign 2025. “As Uranus began to occult the star, the planet’s atmosphere refracted the starlight, causing the star to appear to gradually dim before being blocked completely. The reverse happened at the end of the occultation, making what we call a light curve. By observing the occultation from many large telescopes, we are able to measure the light curve and determine Uranus’ atmospheric properties at many altitude layers.”

“We are able to measure the light curve and determine Uranus’ atmospheric properties at many altitude layers.”

William Saunders, Planetary Scientist at NASA’s Langley Research Center

This detailed data from Uranus’ stratosphere, the middle layer of its atmosphere, will help scientists understand how the planet’s climate works today, how it’s changed over decades, and what to expect for future missions to this distant, icy world.

VIDEO AT LINK...................

This rendering demonstrates what is happening during a stellar occultation and illustrates an example of the light curve data graph recorded by scientists that enables them to gather atmospheric measurements, like temperature and pressure, from Uranus as the amount of starlight changes when the planet eclipses the star. Credit: NASA/Langley Research Center Advanced Concepts Laboratory

A Coordinated Global Effort to Observe Uranus

To observe the rare event, which lasted about an hour and was only visible from Western North America, planetary scientists at NASA Langley led an international team of over 30 astronomers using 18 professional observatories.

“This was the first time we have collaborated on this scale for an occultation,” said Saunders. “I am extremely grateful to each member of the team and each observatory for taking part in this extraordinary event. NASA will use the observations of Uranus to determine how energy moves around the atmosphere and what causes the upper layers to be inexplicably hot. Others will use the data to measure Uranus’ rings, its atmospheric turbulence, and its precise orbit around the Sun.”

Unraveling Uranus’ Orbit and Ring Mysteries

Knowing the location and orbit of Uranus is not as simple as it sounds. In 1986, NASA’s Voyager 2 spacecraft became the first and only spacecraft to fly past the planet, 10 years before the last bright stellar occultation occurred in 1996. And, Uranus’ exact position in space is only accurate to within about 100 miles, which makes analyzing this new atmospheric data crucial to future NASA exploration of the ice giant.

These investigations were possible because the large number of partners provided many unique views of the stellar occultation from many different instruments.

NASA’s Infrared Telescope Facility Joins the Effort

Emma Dahl, a postdoctoral scholar at Caltech in Pasadena, California, assisted in gathering observations from NASA’s Infrared Telescope Facility (IRTF) on the summit of Mauna Kea in Hawaii – an observatory first built to support NASA’s Voyager missions.

“As scientists, we do our best work when we collaborate. This was a team effort between NASA scientists, academic researchers, and amateur astronomers,” said Dahl. “The atmospheres of the gas and ice giant planets [Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune] are exceptional atmospheric laboratories because they don’t have solid surfaces. This allows us to study cloud formation, storms, and wind patterns without the extra variables and effects a surface produces, which can complicate simulations very quickly.”

Test Run Over Asia Sharpens April Predictions

On November 12, 2024, NASA Langley researchers and collaborators were able to do a test run to prepare for the April occultation. Langley coordinated two telescopes in Japan and one in Thailand to observe a dimmer Uranus stellar occultation only visible from Asia. As a result, these observers learned how to calibrate their instruments to observe stellar occultations, and NASA was able to test its theory that multiple observatories working together could capture Uranus’ big event in April.

Researchers from the Paris Observatory and Space Science Institute, in contact with NASA, also coordinated observations of the November 2024 occultation from two telescopes in India. These observations of Uranus and its rings allowed the researchers, who were also members of the April 7 occultation team, to improve the predictions about the timing on April 7 down to the second and also improved modeling to update Uranus’ expected location during the occultation by 125 miles.

What Makes Uranus an Ice Giant

Uranus is almost 2 billion miles away from Earth and has an atmosphere composed primarily of hydrogen and helium. It does not have a solid surface, but rather a soft surface made of water, ammonia, and methane. It’s called an ice giant because its interior contains an abundance of these swirling fluids that have relatively low freezing points. And, while Saturn is the most well-known planet for having rings, Uranus has 13 known rings composed of ice and dust.

Looking Ahead: A Brighter Occultation in 2031

Over the next six years, Uranus will occult several dimmer stars. NASA hopes to gather airborne and possibly space-based measurements of the next bright Uranus occultation in 2031, which will be of an even brighter star than the one observed in April.


TOPICS: Arts/Photography; Astronomy; History; Science
KEYWORDS: astronomy; caelus; proctology; science; uranus; uranusjokes
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To: Red Badger
On a serious note, the author / editor of this paper in trying to dumb this down for the public wrote a dumb description of what they actually used. To measure the details of density and temperature you don't use "the light curve" as the author incorrectly states which you could measure with a good amateur telescope anyway. The light curve is merely the light transmission through the atmosphere and gives you average data through the part of the atmosphere.

What these telescopes actually use are highly sophisticated spectrometers that can tell you details of the chemical composition of the atmosphere and the degree of ionization at various points in the atmosphere. Spectroscopic line positions and line-widths all contribute to estimates of temperature and density. That is why you need multiple telescopes all operating at the same time. The author could have said something about all of that.

41 posted on 05/12/2025 6:12:54 AM PDT by AndyJackson
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To: Red Badger

OK, I’ll have a go at it....

What do the Starship Enterprise and toilet paper have in common?

They’re both flying out past Uranus looking for Klingons.


42 posted on 05/12/2025 6:19:17 AM PDT by fredhead (Duty, Honor, Country.....Honor, Courage, Commitment )
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To: Red Badger

Had to look twice to make sure Laz did not post this article based upon the title!


43 posted on 05/12/2025 6:20:01 AM PDT by tired&retired (Blessings )
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To: AndyJackson

Jeez, a serious comment after 40 posts. The horror, the horror. ;-)


44 posted on 05/12/2025 6:20:22 AM PDT by House Atreides (I’m now ULTRA-MAGA-PRO-MAX)
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To: Red Badger

Fry: Oh, man, this is great! Hey, as long as you don’t make me smell Uranus.
[He laughs.]
Leela: I don’t get it.
Farnsworth: I’m sorry, Fry, but astronomers renamed Uranus in 2620 to end that stupid joke once and for all..
Fry: Oh. What’s it called now?
Farnsworth: Urectum.


45 posted on 05/12/2025 6:23:02 AM PDT by Clay Moore (My pistol identifies as a cordless hole punch. )
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To: Red Badger

And I didn’t feel anything.


46 posted on 05/12/2025 6:25:13 AM PDT by spincaster (ifi)
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To: fredhead

This made me spit my coffee.


47 posted on 05/12/2025 6:26:39 AM PDT by spincaster (ifi)
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To: Red Badger

It looks much better than I imagined.


48 posted on 05/12/2025 6:30:05 AM PDT by PGR88
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To: Red Badger

Does anybody review headlines anymore before release?


49 posted on 05/12/2025 6:34:46 AM PDT by Tommy Revolts
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To: Red Badger

We meant to do this a long time ago but it fell through the cracks.


50 posted on 05/12/2025 6:35:13 AM PDT by Hegemony Cricket (< < Wandering aimfully > >)
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To: V_TWIN

47 replies in an hour folks.

Do better.


51 posted on 05/12/2025 6:35:29 AM PDT by military cop (I carry a .45....cause they don't make a .46....)
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To: joshua c

NASA Just Got a Rare Look Inside Uranus – Here’s What They Found.

ADAM SHIFT !!!


52 posted on 05/12/2025 6:41:03 AM PDT by cuz1961
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To: Red Badger

“NASA Just Got a Rare Look Inside Uranus – Here’s What They Found”

A Chuck Schumer look alike?


53 posted on 05/12/2025 6:41:54 AM PDT by antidemoncrat ( )
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To: Red Badger

So, when does NASA try to go to Youranus?


54 posted on 05/12/2025 6:43:32 AM PDT by RetiredArmy (The Bible speaks truth! Don't believe it, you do so at your own peril. You'd better be right!!)
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To: Red Badger

We all knew that NASA employed many anal retentive scientists. This is just the proof. No one can deny that NASA spends millions are spent in an obsession to photograph Uranus despite the intrusion into privacy. Lawyers are lining up to file civil rights violations.


55 posted on 05/12/2025 6:54:05 AM PDT by Dr. Franklin ("A republic, if you can keep it." )
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To: Dr. Franklin

HIPAA LAWS apply?..................


56 posted on 05/12/2025 6:57:45 AM PDT by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegals are put up in 5 Star hotels....................)
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To: Red Badger

Lemiwinks?


57 posted on 05/12/2025 7:35:36 AM PDT by GMThrust
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To: GMThrust

Gerbils?............................


58 posted on 05/12/2025 7:37:52 AM PDT by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegals are put up in 5 Star hotels....................)
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To: Red Badger

Neptune doesn’t get this kind of attention. That’s just faulty marketing.


59 posted on 05/12/2025 7:51:54 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (Putin should skip ahead to where he kills himself in the bunker.)
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To: Red Badger
Here we go again. Can someone please rename that poor planet.

60 posted on 05/12/2025 8:02:05 AM PDT by BitWielder1 (I'd rather have Unequal Wealth than Equal Poverty.)
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