Have we ever been to Uranus? The answer is simple, yes, but only once. The Voyager II spacecraft flew by the planet Uranus back in 1986, during a golden era when the Voyager spacecraft explored all four giant planets of our solar system. It revealed an extreme world, a planet that had been bowled over […]
Category: Uranus
Hubble Helps Determine Uranus’ Rotation Rate with Unprecedented Precision
An international team of astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has made new measurements of Uranus’ interior rotation rate with a novel technique, achieving a level of accuracy 1,000 times greater than previous estimates. By analyzing more than a decade of Hubble observations of Uranus’ aurorae, researchers have refined the planet’s rotation period and […]
20-Year Hubble Study of Uranus Yields New Atmospheric Insights
The ice-giant planet Uranus, which travels around the Sun tipped on its side, is a weird and mysterious world. Now, in an unprecedented study spanning two decades, researchers using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope have uncovered new insights into the planet’s atmospheric composition and dynamics. This was possible only because of Hubble’s sharp resolution, spectral capabilities, […]