Free Republic

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 ================================================================= 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,...

Fifteen observatories across the US, Mexico, and Hawai’i looked at the planet eclipsing a star. Uranus, its rings, and some of its moons as seen by JWST. Image credit: NASA, ESA,CSA, STScI, Joseph DePasqual ************************************************************ On April 7, 2025, star HIP 16271 was occulted by Uranus. As a star, it is by no means famous. A yellow-white star in the constellation of Taurus, not bright enough to be visible to the naked eye given its distance – about 400 light-years away – but bright enough to allow astronomers to look into the atmosphere of Uranus in great detail for the...

All four of the sun’s giant planets emit more energy than they receive from the sun. Like the sun’s other giant worlds, Uranus (seen in this 1986 photo from the Voyager 2 spacecraft) radiates more energy than the sun gives it, though not nearly as strongly as its massive peers do. JPL/NASA ===================================================================== Uranus emits more energy than it gets from the sun, two new studies report — a discovery that contradicts findings from the venerable Voyager spacecraft. When Voyager 2 sped past Uranus on January 24, 1986, the spacecraft detected no significant excess heat from the planet, making it...

To the delight of third grade humorists everywhere, scientists have proven that Uranus smells bad. The seventh planet from the sun has many claims to fame: Its axial tilt of 98 degrees is the most extreme in the solar system, essentially turning the planet sideways, and it also ranks absolute last on the order of planets from hottest to coldest, with temperatures that drop below -300 degrees Fahrenheit. However, Uranus tends to be overshadowed by the chuckles that often accompany its name, a fact that won't be helped by the revelation that it might also be the stinkiest planet of...

The peculiar layers could explain the ice giants' magnetic peculiarities. Uranus (left) and Neptune (right) are the ice blue giants in the outer Solar System. Image credit: Patrick Irwin/University of Oxford/NASA Uranus and Neptune were only visited once by human spacecraft when Voyager 2 passed by them almost 40 years ago. During those visits, scientists measured peculiar magnetic fields unlike those seen around other planets. A recent paper suggests that the Uranus measurements might have been messed up by the Sun, but in general, it has been difficult to explain the behavior. New research suggests that the magnetic weirdness might...

The planet Uranus and its five biggest moons may not be the dead sterile worlds that scientists have long thought. Instead, they may have oceans, and the moons may even be capable of supporting life, scientists say. Much of what we know about them was gathered by Nasa’s Voyager 2 spacecraft... flew past and sent back sensational pictures of the planet and its five major moons. But what amazed scientists even more was the data Voyager 2 sent back indicating that the Uranian system was even weirder than they thought. The measurements from the spacecraft’s instruments indicated that the planets...

They’re running rings around Uranus. New research suggests a moon orbiting the sophomoric-sounding planet might contain enough natural resources to support alien life. Scientists from Johns Hopkins and the University of North Dakota say the lunar object, named Miranda, has sources of water hidden below its surface. The finding could be a breakthrough in mankind’s ongoing search for the little green men. “To find evidence of an ocean inside a small object like Miranda is incredibly surprising,” said planetary scientist and researcher Tom Nordheim. The findings were published in The Planetary Science Journal. “It helps build on the story that...

Hubble And New Horizons are 9 billion kilometers (5.6 million miles) apart but they can still work together. Uranus as seen by Hubble (left) and New Horizons (right). Image Credit: NASA, ESA, STScI, Samantha Hasler (MIT), Amy Simon (NASA-GSFC), New Horizons Planetary Science Theme Team Image Processing Joseph DePasquale (STScI), Joseph Olmsted (STScI) ===================================================================================== Studying exoplanets is not easy. Despite enormous steps forward in technology, models, and observational tricks, astronomers are still looking at small dots either blocking some starlight or reflecting it while being next to a bright object that easily outshines them. It requires practice, and researchers have...

Scientists have found methane deep within Uranus - revealing the blue planet is gassier than previously thought. Early experiments of Uranus found the planet is primarily made up of Helium and hydrogen with a touch of methane, but a new study said it considerably outstrips previous expectations. What's odd about the methane though, is it isn't in gas-form but is frozen or 'mushy,' - like a 7-eleven Slurpee - and is lodged in Uranus's core. Researchers at the Israel Institute of Technology and University of California Santa Cruz revealed that despite findings that said Uranus is made up entirely of...

The James Webb Space Telescope has captured detailed images of Uranus, revealing its dynamic atmosphere, including rings, moons, and storms. This enhanced view contrasts with earlier images, showing a more active Uranus with a prominent seasonal north polar cloud cap and several storms. These observations are vital for understanding the planet’s complex atmosphere and may also provide insights into the study of exoplanets. Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI New View Reveals a Strange and Dynamic Ice World When Voyager 2 flew past Uranus in 1986, the planet appeared to be a nearly featureless, solid blue ball. Now, Webb shows us...

Our ideas of the colours of the planets Neptune and Uranus have been wrong, research led by UK astronomers reveals. Images from a space mission in the 1980s showed Neptune to be a rich blue and Uranus green. But a study has discovered that the two ice giant planets are both similar shades of greenish blue. It has emerged that the earlier images of Neptune had been enhanced to show details of the planet's atmosphere, which altered its true colour. "They did something that I think everyone on Instagram will have done at some time in their life, they tweaked...

Astronomers have used telescope data to color-correct Voyager 2 images of Neptune and Uranus, revealing that the planets have a similar greenish blue hue. VIDEO AT LINK........... Panels a and b show early images of the visible appearance of Uranus and Neptune reconstructed from Voyager 2 ISS images in 1986 and 1989, respectively, showing Uranus to be pale blue-green, and Neptune dark blue (PIA18182 and PIA01492, credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech). While these early Uranus images were close to ‘true’ colour, the Neptune images were actually stretched and enhanced. Panels c and d show more recent reconstructions of the true colours of these...

Visitors to Russia's first museum of LGBT culture, which opened in St. Petersburg on November 27, are greeted by a portrait of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.Tchaikovsky – the 19th century composer of the Nutcracker, among other works – is arguably one of the most famous gay Russians.Pyotr Voskresensky – a more contemporary gay Russian – got the idea to open the museum after a visit to Tchaikovsky's house in Klin. "The estate and the house interiors were completely scrubbed," Voskresensky told Radio Free Europe. "There was no hint of the composer's personal life.""The context of the opening of this museum is...

Extreme Pressure Diamond Anvil Structures and properties of materials at extremely high pressures and temperatures are still largely “terra incognita”. Prof. Leonid Dubrovinsky and his research partners use a laser-heated two-stage diamond anvil cell they constructed for the synthesis of materials in the terapascal range (1000 gigapascals). In situ single crystal X-ray diffraction is used for the simultaneous structural characterization of the materials. Credit: Timofey Fedotenko ****************************************************************** New method enables materials synthesis research and study in the terapascal range for the first time. Jules Verne could not have dreamed of this: A research team from the University of Bayreuth, together...

While scientists know that Pluto, like Earth, flipped on its side sometime in its past, Pluto's orientation before the flip and the degree to which it reoriented itself has not been well understood. Scientists who use New Horizons data to study Pluto's geologic past hope to find clues that explain this event. Now, a group of researchers has attributed Pluto's flip to the formation of Sputnik Planitia, a 620-mile-wide (1,000 km) basin that makes up half of the iconic heart-shaped region on Pluto. Researchers previously knew that Sputnik, which is filled with nitrogen ice, played a profound role in realigning...

Jupiter, Mercury, Venus, Uranus and Mars are expected to align March 28.. A spectacular celestial sight is on the horizon and you won't want to miss it. Planets Jupiter, Mercury, Venus, Uranus and Mars are expected to align in the night sky on March 28. Planetary alignments occur when the orbit of several planets coincide with each other and they appear to be lined up in the sky. Alignments typically only include two or three planets and are fairly brief, making a 5-planet alignment fairly noteworthy. This rare planetary parade will first become visible in the western sky just after...

Explanation: It is not a coincidence that planets line up. That's because all of the planets orbit the Sun in (nearly) a single sheet called the plane of the ecliptic. When viewed from inside that plane -- as Earth dwellers are likely to do -- the planets all appear confined to a single band. It is a coincidence, though, when three of the brightest planets all appear in nearly the same direction. Such a coincidence was captured earlier this month. Featured above (right to left), Venus, Saturn, and Jupiter were all imaged together in a line just after sunset, from...

Have you seen the “planetary parade” after sunset? It’s getting a lot of media attention, partly because Jupiter is about to sink into the Sun’s glare and ruin it, but you can glimpse some to all of the five planets naked-eye and with binoculars on any night this week. Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Uranus and Mars are all visible right after sunset. Get somewhere high with a clear view of the western horizon to watch the sunset. After sunset have a look for Jupiter and Mercury very close to the horizon. You may need binoculars. Above them will be a very...

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has captured an amazing image of Uranus, showing in great detail the ice giant's ring system, its brightest moons and its dynamic atmosphere. The new observation, made on Feb. 6, follows a similarly stunning photo JWST captured recently of the solar system's other ice giant, Neptune. The new Uranus image shows 11 of the planet's 13 known rings, some of which are so bright that they blend together somewhat. What will really astound astronomers, however, is the fact that JWST's Near Infrared Camera (NIRCam) instrument is sensitive enough to have captured the innermost two...

Webb’s infrared image highlights the planet’s dramatic rings and dynamic atmosphere. This zoomed-in image of Uranus, captured by Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) on 6 February 2023, reveals stunning views of the planet’s rings. The planet displays a blue hue in this representative-colour image, made by combining data from two filters (F140M, F300M) at 1.4 and 3.0 microns, shown here as blue and orange, respectively. On the right side of the planet is an area of brightening at the pole facing the Sun, known as a polar cap. This polar cap is unique to Uranus because it is the only planet...