Uranus (The Planet)

[kamalktk]

Note the date.

The research cited is from March 31st though, seems to be legitimate article.

 

[Nosmo King]

Love the bit were it says Uranus smells terrible

 

[Mythopoeika]

Love the bit were it says Uranus smells terrible

Mine does, so that research is accurate.

 

[ramonmercado]

The watery moons of Uranus.

There might be some hidden oceans lurking around Uranus.

New evidence suggests that one or two of the gas giant's 27 known moons might be harboring liquid oceans beneath their crusty rock-and-ice exteriors. The possible culprits for seeding the space around Uranus with plasma are Miranda and Ariel, one or both of which might be erupting with ocean plumes.

The data, which came from the Voyager 2 mission that flew past the planet on its way to outer space nearly 40 years ago – the only spacecraft ever to have done so – makes an excellent case for sending another probe to Uranus.

"We've been making this case for a few years now that energetic particle and electromagnetic field measurements are important not just for understanding the space environment but also for contributing to the grander planetary science investigation," says astronomer Ian Cohen of Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory.

"Turns out that can even be the case for data that are older than I am. It just goes to show how valuable it can be to go to a system and explore it first-hand."

Cohen and his team presented their findings on March 16 at the 54th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, and a paper describing them has been accepted for publication in Geophysical Research Letters. ...

https://www.sciencealert.com/strange-signal-from-decades-ago-hints-at-hidden-oceans-orbiting-uranus

 

[hunck]

New photo of Uranus from James Webb Telescope

The normally faint inner and outer rings of Uranus shine in the latest image, including the planet’s closest yet incredibly dim and diffuse Zeta ring. Nine of Uranus’ 27 known moons can also be seen as blue dots, including some of the smaller ones that exist within the rings.
One of the brightest features in the new image is Uranus’ seasonal white north polar cap, which takes center stage as the pole points toward the sun during the planet’s approach to solstice, expected to occur in 2028.

One year on Uranus lasts around 84 Earth years, and for about a quarter of the Uranian year, the sun shines directly over one of the planet’s poles, which means the other half of Uranus experiences a dark winter that lasts 21 Earth years.
https://edition.cnn.com/2023/12/18/world/nasa-space-laser-cat-video-scn
While a year on Uranus may take decades from our perspective, one day on Uranus passes very quickly, only taking about 17 hours.

The planet’s quick spin makes spotting storms and other atmospheric features on Uranus very difficult because they appear to move within minutes.

But Webb was able to take long and short exposures of Uranus that allowed astronomers to see unprecedented details.

 

[Kondoru]

Enhanced image? Surely not like that?

 

[eburacum]

Yes, it is enhanced, by 'stacking'; that is to say, laying lots of images on top of one another to bring out the details.

With the naked eye Uranus would be quite dim, because it is so far from the Sun, and the rings are nearly invisible. But if you had eyes that were about five feet across, this is what you would see.