The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is pleased to celebrate the upcoming second anniversary of its launch. POT and the European Space Agency (ESA), which operates the spacecraft alongside the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), shared a recent image of the icy planet Uranus. The image, which resembles a bright blue marble rippling in a black ocean, was channeled through the telescope's infrared filters to capture wavelengths that future space travelers would not see with the naked eye.
Compared to the generic looking images of Uranus. taken by Voyager 2 in the 1980s, the Webb telescope paints a more vivid picture. By capturing light in the infrared spectrum, the spacecraft's sensors reveal a “strange, dynamic ice world full of exciting atmospheric features,” as the team operating the telescope described it.
The JWST image shows the planet's rings surrounding it, including “the elusive Zeta ring,” the faintest and most scattered ring in Uranus's interior. You can also see its cloud cover at the north pole, the white spot near the center.
The image also captures 14 of Uranus's 27 moons, labeled in the photo above. Among the orbiting bodies (mostly named after Shakespeare) shown in the image are Oberon, Titania, Umbriel, Juliet, Perdita, Rosalind, Puck, Belinda, Desdemona, Cressida, Ariel, Miranda, Bianca and Portia.
The JWST photograph uses four NIRCam filters, which reveal details in the near-infrared spectrum. These include F140M (blue), F210M (cyan), F300M (yellow) and F460M (orange). An image from NASA shared Earlier this year it showed Uranus in just two filters (blue and orange), resulting in a more primitive-looking view of the ice giant.
Speaking of ice, Uranus has a lot of ice. The planet rotates on its side at about 98 degrees, plunging the opposite side of the planet into extreme cold and darkness for a quarter of a Uranian year. Oh, and since Uranus years last about 84 Earth years, that means, according to our calendar, that the dark side of the planet enjoys a windy 21-year winter.
Astronomers believe the Webb telescope images will help them better understand Uranus, especially its Zeta ring, for future missions. They also see the images as an indicator for learning about the nearly 2,000 exoplanets documented in other solar systems that share traits with our icy, ringed neighbor.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/webb-telescopes-new-uranus-image-looks-like-a-portal-to-another-dimension-181035887.html?src=rss
