Uranus Planetary System
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Hubble Finds Many Bright Clouds on Uranus
A recent Hubble Space Telescope view reveals Uranus surrounded by its four major rings and by 10 of its 17 known satellites. This false-color image was generated by Erich Karkoschka using data taken on August 8, 1998, with Hubble's Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer.
Hubble recently found about 20 clouds — nearly as many clouds on Uranus as the previous total in the history of modern observations. The orange-colored clouds near the prominent bright band circle the planet at more than 300 mph (500 km/h), according to team member Heidi Hammel (MIT). One of the clouds on the right-hand side is brighter than any other cloud ever seen on Uranus.
The colors in the image indicate altitude. Team member Mark Marley (New Mexico State University) reports that green and blue regions show where the atmosphere is clear and sunlight can penetrate deep into Uranus. In yellow and grey regions the sunlight reflects from a higher haze or cloud layer. Orange and red colors indicate very high clouds, such as cirrus clouds on Earth.
The Hubble image is one of the first images revealing the precession of the brigh-*test*-('") ring with respect to a previous image . Precession makes the fainter part of the ring (currently on the upper right-hand side) slide around Uranus once every nine months. The fading is caused by ring particles crowding and hiding each other on one side of their eight-hour orbit around Uranus.
The blue, green and red components of this false-color image correspond to exposures taken at near-infrared wavelengths of 0.9, 1.1, and 1.7 micrometers. Thus, regions on Uranus appearing blue, for example, reflect more sunlight at 0.9 micrometer than at the longer wavelengths. Apparent colors on Uranus are caused by absorption of methane gas in its atmosphere, an effect comparable to absorption in our atmosphere which can make distant clouds appear red.
Credit: Erich Karkoschka (University of Arizona) and NASA
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap041118.html
A Sharper View of a Tilted Planet
Credit: Lawrence Sromovsky, (Univ. Wisconsin-Madison), Keck Observatory
Explanation: These sharp views of tilted gas giant Uranus show dramatic details of the planet's atmosphere and ring system. The remarkable ground-based images were made using a near-infrared camera and the Keck Adaptive Optics system to reduce the blurring effects of Earth's atmosphere. Recorded in July, the pictures show two sides of Uranus (careful how you pronounce that ...). In both, high, white cloud features are seen mostly in the northern (right hand) hemisphere, with medium level cloud bands in green and lower level clouds in blue. The artificial color scheme lends a deep reddish tint to the otherwise faint rings. Because of the severe tilt of its rotational axis, seasons on Uranus are extreme and last nearly 21 Earth years on the distant planet. Uranus is now slowly approaching its southern autumnal equinox - the beginning of fall in the southern hemisphere - in 2007.
http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA01352
PIA00033: Uranus Rings in False Color
Target Name: U Rings
Is a satellite of: Uranus
Mission: Voyager
Spacecraft: Voyager 2
Product Size: 399 samples x 500 lines
Produced By: JPL
Producer ID: P29498
Addition Date: 1996-01-29
Primary Data Set: Voyager EDRs
Original Caption Released with Image:
This false-color view of the rings of Uranus was made from images taken by Voyager 2 on Jan. 21, 1986, from a distance of 4.17 million kilometers (2.59 million miles). All nine known rings are visible here; the somewhat fainter, pastel lines seen between them are contributed by the computer enhancement. Six 15-second narrow-angle images were used to extract color information from the extremely dark and faint rings. Two images each in the green, clear and violet filters were added together and averaged to find the proper color differences between the rings. The final image was made from these three color averages and represents an enhanced, false-color view. The image shows that the brigh-*test*-('"), or epsilon, ring at top is neutral in color, with the fainter eight other rings showing color differences between them. Moving down, toward Uranus, we see the delta, gamma and eta rings in shades of blue and green; the beta and alpha rings in somewhat lighter tones; and then a final set of three, known simply as the 4, 5 and 6 rings, in faint off-white tones. Scientists will use this color information to try to understand the nature and origin of the ring material. The resolution of this image is approximately 40 km (25 mi). The Voyager project is managed for NASA by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
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This view of Uranus was recorded by Voyager 2 on Jan 25, 1986, as the spacecraft left the planet behind and set forth on the cruise to Neptune Even at this extreme angle, Uranus retains the pale blue-green color seen by ground-based astronomers and recorded by Voyager during its historic encounter. This color results from the presence of methane in Uranus' atmosphere; the gas absorbs red wavelengths of light, leaving the predominant hue seen here.Image Credit: NASA/JPL *Click For More Images/Sizes*
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Titania on to Uranus