The giant planet Uranus [ http://seds.lpl.ari…] is faint and featureless when viewed in visible light [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…]. But this pair [ http://oposite.stsc…] of near-infrared mosaics [ http://oposite.stsc…] from the Hubble Space Telescope's NICMOS camera [ http://www.stsci.ed…] reveals moons, rings, and clouds of this distant gas planet [ http://nssdc.gsfc.n…]. The color coded images highlight different atmospheric layers - blue represents the deepest layers while the highest cloud features have a reddish tinge. Racing around the planet, high, bright clouds are seen to move substantially between the two pictures taken only ninety minutes apart. Ring systems [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…] are a common to the solar system's [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…] giant planets. Here the main Uranian ring [ http://ringside.arc…] seems to vary in width and is clearly brightest near the top. The eight specks beyond the ring system are small Uranian moons [ http://www.seds.org…] which also show counter-clockwise motion [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…] over ninety minutes as traced by the arrows [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…] on the right hand image.
Explanation
The giant planet Uranus [ http://seds.lpl.ari…] is faint and featureless when viewed in visible light [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…]. But this pair [ http://oposite.stsc…] of near-infrared mosaics [ http://oposite.stsc…] from the Hubble Space Telescope's NICMOS camera [ http://www.stsci.ed…] reveals moons, rings, and clouds of this distant gas planet [ http://nssdc.gsfc.n…]. The color coded images highlight different atmospheric layers - blue represents the deepest layers while the highest cloud features have a reddish tinge. Racing around the planet, high, bright clouds are seen to move substantially between the two pictures taken only ninety minutes apart. Ring systems [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…] are a common to the solar system's [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…] giant planets. Here the main Uranian ring [ http://ringside.arc…] seems to vary in width and is clearly brightest near the top. The eight specks beyond the ring system are small Uranian moons [ http://www.seds.org…] which also show counter-clockwise motion [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…] over ninety minutes as traced by the arrows [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…] on the right hand image.
