Scientists Just Used The Most Powerful Space Telescope Ever Built to Look at Uranus

[Judi Lynn]

Story by Michelle Starr • 10h ago

We've just been given a spectacular new perspective on what is possibly the oddest ball in the Solar System.



Scientists Just Used The Most Powerful Space Telescope Ever Built to Look at Uranus
© Provided by ScienceAlert

The James Webb Space Telescope has turned its golden, infrared gaze on the enigmatic seventh world from the Sun, Uranus – and the image it returned has revealed the turquoise planet in gleaming glory. Moons, rings, and all.

Every planet and dwarf planet in the Solar System has its own set of quirks and idiosyncrasies that make it special, but Uranus is truly peculiar. The icy, gelid world, at first glance, looks fairly unremarkable, but the closer you look, the weirder – and more beautiful – it gets.

But you have to look beyond the colors our own eyes can detect, in which Uranus appears to be a relatively featureless orb of pale blue. In thermal imaging, for example, comprising radio and infrared wavelengths, scientists have been able to measure the physical properties of Uranus' faint, icy rings.



A zoomed-in view showing Uranus' spectacular, ethereal ring system. ( NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI/J. DePasquale )
© Provided by ScienceAlert

JWST is the most powerful space telescope ever launched, and it sees the Universe exclusively in infrared and near-infrared. That makes it perfect for capturing the stretched glow of light that was shed billions of years in our past.

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https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/scientists-just-used-the-most-powerful-space-telescope-ever-built-to-look-at-uranus/ar-AA19I9Kk