The James Webb Space Telescope has captured a new stunning image of ice giant Uranus, with almost all its faint dusty rings on display.
The image is representative of the telescope’s significant sensitivity, NASA said, as the fainter rings have only been captured previously by the Voyager 2 spacecraft and the W.M. Keck Observatory on Maunakea in Hawaii. Uranus has 13 known rings, with 11 of them visible in the new Webb image. Nine rings are classified as the main rings, while the other two are harder to capture due to their dusty makeup and were not discovered until the Voyager 2 mission’s flyby in 1986.
“The infrared can show us new depths and features that are difficult to see from the ground with the atmosphere in the way and invisible to telescopes that look in visible light like Hubble.” More on Uranus Located 1.8 billion miles away from our sun, Uranus takes 84 years to complete a full rotation. The planet is unique in its tilt to its side, causing its rings to be displayed vertically, unlike Saturn’s horizontal ring system.
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