Hubble spots dark spot on Uranus (picture)

discovery Channel ^ | 10/4/06

[Mr. Brightside]

Hubble spots dark spot on Uranus

Updated Wed. Oct. 4 2006 4:27 PM ET

Brian Jackson , DiscoveryChannel.ca

The recently-troubled Hubble Space Telescope has spotted a giant swirling, dark vortex on Uranus.

Peering 3.2 billion km into space, Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys snapped the photos on August 23. The dark spot indicates a massive storm on the alien planet's surface that is large enough to engulf two-thirds of the United States.

University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers report the spot measures 1,700 km by 3,000 km. The image is a composite of three cameras that comprise Hubble's main viewing device.

Hubble trouble

Since taking the image, Hubble's primary camera has experienced technical difficulties.

The three-channel camera shut down after losing power on Sept. 23. Since then, one of the three channels have been restored.

Telescope managers redirected power to get the Wide Field Channel to work again.

Power is unable to reach the other two channels. NASA is not sure why.

[SunkenCiv]

Uranus: Magnetic Field And Magnetosphere
by C. T. Russell and J. G. Luhmann
Quicktime movie (other source)

If the intrinsic magnetic field of Uranus had been nearly aligned with the rotational axis, as the planets previously visited were, the polar axis of the magnetosphere, or the polar cusp as it is called, would have been aligned with the solar wind flow as Voyager flew by the planet. Ironically, the magnetic axis of the intrinsic magnetic field of Uranus was far from spin axis-aligned, so that the solar wind blew nearly perpendicular to the magnetic axis, as it does at Mercury, Earth, Jupiter and Saturn. Thus, while Uranus has an unusual intrinsic magnetic field, the resulting magnetosphere was found to be very Earth-like.

[SunkenCiv]

New Uranus Image Captures Its Rings, Moons
by SPACE.com Staff
March 22 2002
picture

The picture shows the gaseous planet, its ring system and two of its satellites: Miranda is at the top-center of the photo; Ariel is at the bottom-left. Unlike other planets, Uranus is so far away that few good pictures of it have been taken.

Birth of Uranus' Provocative Moon Still Puzzles Scientists
by Andrew Chaikin
October 16, 2001

Planetary geologist Bob Pappalardo of the University of Colorado at Boulder, who did his PhD thesis on the satellite, discovered the problems when he tried to understand how the coronae -- the formal name for Miranda's tortured bullseye patterns of ridges, grooves, and jumbled terrain -- could have formed by sinking blocks of the reassembled moon... [I]t looked as if the moon's crust had been ripped apart... And a close look at the ridges by Pappalardo and others indicated that some are actually icy volcanoes. Suddenly the whole picture changed. Instead of dense blocks sinking into the crust, Miranda's features seemed to be formed by something rising up from below.

[Fred Nerks]

Hey, that was fun! I ended up with this:

Deep Impact?First Impressions

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1437408/posts

Now, where's the OFFICIAL version, LOL!

[Fred Nerks]

All sing PUFF THE MAGIC DRAGON...

Remember this:


Now the astronomers propose a fluffy ball of powder... and exactly what mechanism do they postulate to "puff the dust," sunlight allergic Magic Dragons????




69 posted on 09/06/2005 11:26:05 PM PDT by Swordmaker

[grey_whiskers]

Each time there's a thread on Uranus
The jokes are all likely to pain us.
This time it's the Hubble
That's causing the trouble
Which makes others want to just brain us.

You scoundrel!

Beat me to it!

Cheers!

[Joe Boucher]

good one.

[Trillian]

[ironmaidenPR2717]

ROFLMAO

Hey, I can't see sh** through this thing....oh yeah - wait -I do see a dark spot.

[Irish_Thatcherite]

I'm guessing every possible joke has been told by this stage! ;)

[Slings and Arrows]

I'm guessing every possible joke has been told by this stage! ;)

Some twice.

[Irish_Thatcherite]

The title was too obvious...

[NonLinear]

Nothing like a good Uranus thread!

Wouldn't that be a thong?

[operation clinton cleanup]

I sure hope that is a woman!

[NonLinear]

Man I thought there was going to be an ass with a dark spot on it,

Turns out it was a light spot...

[NonLinear]

Or a mole,

or even a gerbil..

A very talented gerbil, at that!

[NonLinear]

Me too.

I found a much better pic, that absolutely was female, but it may have been a little racy for a family forum!

[null and void]

Link please?

[NonLinear]

Here 'tis!

[null and void]

Thanks. I needed that...

[TheBigB]

BUSH'S FAULT!!!!