The NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope focused on the unusual and enigmatic ice giant UranusThis is reported by the European Space Agency (ESA).

In this way, Webb captured this world with rings, moons, storms and other atmospheric features, including a seasonal polar ice cap. Image zooms in on a two-tone version released earlier this yearadding additional wavelength coverage for a more detailed image.

The telescope captured Uranus’ faint inner and outer rings, including the elusive, extremely faint and diffuse Zeta ring, which is closest to the planet. Images were also captured of many of the planet’s 27 known moons.even some small moons within the rings.

At visible wavelengths, Uranus appeared as a calm, solid blue sphere. Using infrared wavelengths, Webb reveals a strange, dynamic ice world full of exciting atmospheric features and details Europe Press.

One of the most notable is the planet’s seasonal Arctic cap. Compared to the image from earlier this year, some of the details of the cap are easier to see in these new images. These include the bright, white inner cap and the dark stripe at the bottom of the polar cap, towards lower latitudes.

Several bright storms can also be seen near and below the southern edge of the polar ice cap. The number of these storms and their frequency and location in Uranus’ atmosphere may be due to a combination of seasonal and meteorological effects.

The polar cap becomes more prominent when the planet’s pole begins to point toward the sun as it approaches the solstice and receives more sunlight. Uranus will reach its next solstice in 2028, and astronomers are eager to observe possible changes in the structure of these features.

Webb will help unravel the seasonal and meteorological effects that influence the storms on Uranuswhich is crucial for astronomers to understand the planet’s complex atmosphere.

Because Uranus rotates sideways at an inclination of about 98 degrees, it has the most extreme seasons in the solar system. The sun shines on one pole for almost a quarter of each Uranian year, plunging the other half of the planet into a dark, prolonged winter of 21 years.

Featuring Webb’s “unparalleled infrared resolution and sensitivity” Astronomers can now see Uranus and its unique features ‘with groundbreaking clarity’.

Uranus can help astronomers understand how the many similarly sized exoplanets discovered in recent decades work, how planets of this size work, what their meteorology looks like and how they formed. This in turn can help understand the solar system as a whole by placing it in a broader context. (JO)