James Webb celebrates two years since launch with beautiful Uranus images

Opening of the year-end party season as well as second anniversary celebrations, The James Webb Telescope (JWST), launched at Christmas 2021, gave a gift to its fans Images of Uranus, which is considered the most unusual planet of the Solar System due to its unique features.

Like a ball from a large, unlit cosmic Christmas tree, the ice giant emerges with darker, more compact rings, 14 of its 27 moons, storms, atmospheric features and a seasonal polar cap. Not to mention its blue-green color, a result of methane in the atmosphere, and its unmistakable 98-degree “lie” axis.

In the new images, James Webb used four NIRCam filters, two more than in the planet images NASA shared earlier in the year. Details in the F140M (blue), F210M (cyan), F300M (yellow) and F460M (orange) shades of the near-infrared spectrum have now been revealed.

Mysterious rings of Uranus

In visible wavelengths captured by the Voyager-2 space probe in the 1980s, Uranus appeared like a solid, compact blue ball. But thanks to JWST’s infrared filters, it was possible to reveal unprecedented details of the planet’s rings. They are divided into two groups: an inner system of narrow dark gray rings and two outer rings, one reddish and the other blue.

The rings are named with Greek letters and numbers in order of their proximity to the planet: Zeta, 6, 5, 4, Alpha, Beta, Eta, Gamma, Delta, Lambda, Epsilon, Nu and Mu. Some of the larger rings are surrounded by fine dust belts. The new JWST captures enabled unprecedented observations of the incredible Zeta, which at 6,200 kilometers across is the thinnest, most diffused and closest to the planet.

The image also allows you to see one of Uranus’ most impressive atmospheric features: seasonal cloud cover at its north pole.. Compared to images released earlier this year, details of the “title” are more visible, with a bright white inner cover and dark bottom band.

Shakespeare’s moons of Uranus

The new JWST images also show 14 moons of Uranus, which are also mentioned in the photo above. They took their names from characters in the plays of English playwright William Shakespeare: Oberon, Titania, Umbriel, Juliet, Perdita, Rosalind, Puck, Belinda, Desdemona, Cressida, Ariel, Miranda, Bianca and Portia.

Another interesting feature is that when the planet turns sideways, the hemisphere opposite the Sun enters an extremely cold and dark winter for a quarter of the Uranian year. And since each year on the planet lasts 84 Earth years, this stormy winter also lasts 21 years.

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