File:Uranus (Nov 2014 and Nov 2022) (2023-007).png
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DescriptionUranus (Nov 2014 and Nov 2022) (2023-007).png |
English: Planetary oddball Uranus rolls on its side around the Sun as it follows an 84-year orbit, rather than spinning in a more-vertical position as Earth does. Uranus has a weirdly tipped "horizontal" rotation axis angled just eight degrees off the plane of the planet's orbit. One recent theory proposes that Uranus once had a massive moon that gravitationally destabilized it and then crashed into it. Other possibilities include giant impacts during planetary formation, or even giant planets exerting resonant torques on each other over time. The consequences of the planet's tilt are that for stretches of time lasting up to 42 years, parts of one hemisphere are completely without sunlight. When the Voyager 2 spacecraft visited during the 1980s, the planet's south pole was pointed almost directly at the Sun. Hubble's latest view shows the northern pole now tipping toward the Sun.
[left]—This is a Hubble view of Uranus taken in 2014, seven years after northern spring equinox when the Sun was shining directly over the planet's equator, and shows one of the first images from the OPAL program. Multiple storms with methane ice-crystal clouds appear at mid-northern latitudes above the planet's cyan-tinted lower atmosphere. Hubble photographed the ring system edge-on in 2007, but the rings are seen starting to open up seven years later in this view. At this time, the planet had multiple small storms and even some faint cloud bands. [right]—As seen in 2022, Uranus' north pole shows a thickened photochemical haze that looks similar to the smog over cities. Several little storms can be seen near the edge of the polar haze boundary. Hubble has been tracking the size and brightness of the north polar cap and it continues to get brighter year after year. Astronomers are disentangling multiple effects—from atmospheric circulation, particle properties, and chemical processes—that control how the atmospheric polar cap changes with the seasons. At the Uranian equinox in 2007, neither pole was particularly bright. As northern summer solstice approaches in 2028 the cap may grow brighter still, and will be aimed directly toward Earth, allowing good views of the rings and north pole; the ring system will then appear face-on. This image was taken on November 10, 2022. |
Date | 23 March 2023 (upload date) |
Source | Uranus (Nov. 2014 and Nov. 2022) |
Author | SCIENCE: NASA, ESA, STScI, Amy Simon (NASA-GSFC), Michael H. Wong (UC Berkeley) IMAGE PROCESSING: Joseph DePasquale (STScI) |
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Licensing[edit]
Public domainPublic domainfalsefalse |
This file is in the public domain because it was created by NASA and ESA. NASA Hubble material (and ESA Hubble material prior to 2009) is copyright-free and may be freely used as in the public domain without fee, on the condition that only NASA, STScI, and/or ESA is credited as the source of the material. This license does not apply if ESA material created after 2008 or source material from other organizations is in use. The material was created for NASA by Space Telescope Science Institute under Contract NAS5-26555, or for ESA by the Hubble European Space Agency Information Centre. Copyright statement at hubblesite.org or 2008 copyright statement at spacetelescope.org. For material created by the European Space Agency on the spacetelescope.org site since 2009, use the {{ESA-Hubble}} tag. |
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Author | Space Telescope Science Institute Office of Public Outreach |
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Credit/Provider | SCIENCE: NASA, ESA, Amy Simon (NASA-GSFC), Michael H. Wong (UC Berkeley)IMAGE PROCESSING: Joseph DePasquale (STScI) |
Source | STScI |
Usage terms | |
Date and time of data generation | 23 March 2023 |
Color space | sRGB |
Exif version | 2.31 |
Image width | 2,760 px |
Image height | 1,388 px |
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Height | 1,388 px |
Width | 2,760 px |
Pixel composition | RGB |
Number of components | 3 |
Horizontal resolution | 71.98 dpi |
Vertical resolution | 71.98 dpi |
Contact information | outreach@stsci.edu
3700 San Martin Drive Baltimore, MD, 21218 USA |
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Date metadata was last modified | 12:37, 8 March 2023 |
Unique ID of original document | 7CDD8D95A7689AA257A7E6ADD2F6E0FE |
File change date and time | 10:42, 7 March 2023 |