Caption
In this image, two three-dimensional shapes (top) of Uranus are compared to the actual views of the planet from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope (bottom left) and NASA's New Horizon's spacecraft (bottom right). These two missions recently simultaneously observed the gas giant, comparing high-resolution images from Hubble to the smaller view from New Horizons. This combined perspective will help researchers learn more about what to expect while imaging planets around other stars with future observatories.
The gas giant planets in our solar system have dynamic and variable atmospheres with changing cloud cover. By knowing the details of what the clouds on Uranus looked like from Hubble, researchers are able to verify what is interpreted from the New Horizons data.
While it was clear the cloud features were not changing with the planet's rotation, Uranus appeared dimmer in the New Horizons data than expected.
Researchers found this has to do with how the planet reflects light at a different phase than what Hubble can see. This showed that exoplanets may be dimmer than predicted at partial and high phase angles, and that the atmosphere reflects light differently at partial phase.
| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Name | Uranus |
| Object Description | Gas Giant |
| Distance | The distance to Uranus from Earth on September 17, 2023 was 19.1 AU (1.8 billion miles or 2.9 billion km) |
| About The Data | |
| Data Description | The HST observations include those from program (A. Simon) |
| Instrument | WFC3/UVIS |
| Exposure Dates | September 17, 2023 |
| Filters | F467M, F657N, F845M |
| About The Image | |
| Color Info | These images are a composite of separate exposures acquired by the WFC3 instrument on the Hubble Space Telescope. Several filters were used to sample medium wavelength ranges. The color results from assigning different hues (colors) to each monochromatic (grayscale) image associated with an individual filter. In this case, the assigned colors are: Blue: F467M, Green:F657N, Red: F845M |
| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Name | A name or catalog number that astronomers use to identify an astronomical object. |
| Object Description | The type of astronomical object. |
| R.A. Position | Right ascension – analogous to longitude – is one component of an object's position. |
| Dec. Position | Declination – analogous to latitude – is one component of an object's position. |
| Constellation | One of 88 recognized regions of the celestial sphere in which the object appears. |
| Distance | The physical distance from Earth to the astronomical object. Distances within our solar system are usually measured in Astronomical Units (AU). Distances between stars are usually measured in light-years. Interstellar distances can also be measured in parsecs. |
| Dimensions | The physical size of the object or the apparent angle it subtends on the sky. |
| About The Data | |
| Data Description |
|
| Instrument | The science instrument used to produce the data. |
| Exposure Dates | The date(s) that the telescope made its observations and the total exposure time. |
| Filters | The camera filters that were used in the science observations. |
| About The Image | |
| Color Info | A brief description of the methods used to convert telescope data into the color image being presented. |
| Compass and Scale Image | An astronomical image with a scale that shows how large an object is on the sky, a compass that shows how the object is oriented on the sky, and the filters with which the image was made. |
