NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope recently observed luminous rings around Uranus spinning on its side, one of two ice giants in the outer solar system. This image not only shows its rings, but also moons, storms, and other atmospheric features such as a seasonal polar cap.
Webb never before seen features of the bizarre and dynamic ice world such as its seasonal north polar cloud cap. What stands out most are the bright, white, inner cap and the dark lane in the bottom of the polar cap, toward the lower latitudes. You can also see multiple bright storms near and below the southern border of the polar cap. Since the planet spins on its side at a tilt of approximately 98°, the ice giant has the most extreme seasons in the solar system, as in the Sun shines over one pole, while plunging the other half into a dark, 21-year-long winter.
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Uranus can also serve as a proxy for studying the nearly 2,000 similarly sized exoplanets that have been discovered in the last few decades. This ‘exoplanet in our backyard’ can help astronomers understand how planets of this size work, what their meteorology is like, and how they formed. This can in turn help us understand our own solar system as a whole by placing it in a larger context,” said the NASA Webb Telescope Team.
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