The first image of Uranus by the James Webb Telescope released by NASA

This is the new face of Uranus. NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has shared its first image of the planet, revealing previously unseen bright rings around the ice giant and its 27 moons. It combines endless beauty with the fruits of exceptional technology. The $10 billion telescope has captured 11 of its 13 rings. In this new snapshot, rings are so bright they appear to merge into one bright ring.

Astronomers themselves are also amazed by the power of “JWST”, “which photographed the two most fragile dust rings on the planet, which had not been discovered before the Voyager 2 flyby in 1986,” NASA explains on its website. The main rings are made of ice blocks several meters in diameter, while the others are mostly made up of pieces of ice obscured by rocks.

The rings are thin, narrow, and dark compared to other planets with similar characteristics, such as Saturn. What immediately stands out is this blue hue, between pastel and sky blue, which according to the US space agency is due to a thick layer of haze in its atmosphere. The Oxford University researchers dubbed this layer “Aerosol-2,” which they said would appear white at wavelengths visible to the naked eye. It softens the look of the seventh planet from the sun, much like the tracing paper on the photo makes the bright colors more milky.

When Voyager 2 sighted Uranus, the European Space Agency (ESA) said in a statement, its camera showed an almost featureless “blue-green” sphere at visible wavelengths.

27 moons of Uranus

“Thanks to Webb’s infrared wavelengths and increased sensitivity, we see more detail, which shows how dynamic the atmosphere of Uranus is,” the Europeans assure.

The international telescope also captured many of the 27 known moons of Uranus, most of which are too small and dim to be seen from planet Earth, but six brightest moons have been identified in the image. “The six brightest moons have been identified in the Wide View image,” NASA said.

This image of Uranus was the result of a short 12-minute exposure using just two filters. This is just the tip of the iceberg of what James Webb can do to observe this mysterious planet,” NASA explains on its site.” In 2022, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine have designated Uranus science as a priority in the 2023-2033 Decade Study of Planetary Sciences and Astrobiology. Further studies of Uranus are underway, and more are planned during the telescope’s first year of scientific operation.