NASA ’s Hubble Space Telescope has captured ratherawesome imagesof break of day on Uranus , the second outermost planet of our Solar System .
The images were take in ultraviolet radiation , and superpose on an existing picture of the whole planet assume by the Voyager 2 ballistic capsule in 1986 . The gas giant itself appears as a prominent dingy ball , owing tolarge measure of methanein its upper atmosphere .
In this previous inquiry , a team led by the Paris Observatory tracked two burst of solar lead locomote from the Sun to Uranus in 2012 and 2014 . As the winding pip the satellite , they used Hubble to supervise Uranus ’ aurorae , and establish they were the most intense they had ever been . Amazingly , they also found the first direct evidence that the dawning rotate with the planet , and as a issue rediscover the planet ’s long - lost magnetic magnetic pole .
Hubble also captured a scene of the planet ’s ring , which encircles the equator but seems to be going up and down because Uranus is on its side with respect to the rest of the Solar System .
We ’ve see aurorae on Uranus before , notably in 2011 , but they appear particularly great in this latest view . Like on Earth , aurorae on Uranus are triggered by streams of charged speck being catch by the planet ’s magnetic field . They are funnel into the poles , where they interact with gas particles like oxygen and nitrogen to give off burst of light .
On Jupiter , which has an extremely powerful magnetic field , the aurorae are a lasting feature . In fact , just yesterday we found out that its sunrise may be driving a “ Great Cold Spot ” on the gun hulk . We ’ve seen Aurora on Saturn several times , too .
But we sleep together much less about Uranus and its sunrise . We ’ve only visit it once , thanks to a flyby by the aforementioned Voyager 2 spacecraft , so much is still strange about the third heavy planet in our Solar System and its Sun Myung Moon . There are some interesting proposals knock around to send anorbiter to Uranusin the future , though , so peradventure we ’ll learn more about this gas giant one 24-hour interval .
