Alexander Pope

Yes, that’s Uranus. The giant icy orb looks more like an agatized dinosaur egg than a planet in this new image by the Webb Space Telescope.Webb Telescope Images the Pillars of CreationUranus, the seventh planet from the Sun, still holds plenty of secrets. We know it’s an ice giant, thought to be mostly (80% or more) icy water, ammonia, and methane surrounding a rocky core, and that it has skies rich with hydrogen sulfide. It also has a ring system, one that’s far less familiar to us than the circles around Saturn. Though…

New scrutiny of Uranus’ largest moons suggest the bodies may contain ocean layers that could be dozens of miles deep.What Is Planet Nine and Why Can’t We Find It?Uranus has at least 27 moons, which are cold and icy like their host planet. A recent study looked at the planet’s largest moons: Ariel, Umbriel, Titania, Oberon, and Miranda (Uniquely, Uranus has moons named after characters created by Shakespeare and Alexander Pope.)The researchers found that four of thosemoons may be large enough to retain internal heat,…

The Webb Space Telescope has taken a stunning image of Uranus, with a twist: Here, the seventh planet from the Sun is encircled by prominent concentric rings.What Is Planet Nine and Why Can’t We Find It?Uranus has 13 dusty rings, 11 of which are visible in the Webb image. The rings are split into two sets (an inner and outer system), which are named for a range of Greek letters and numbers. The ring system is also visible, albeit more faintly, in Hubble shots of Uranus taken in November 2014 and November 2022.Each planet…