Which ringed planet...!?

Eso_eso0237a_1024

eso_eso0237a December 20th, 2002

Credit: ESO

Near-infrared view of the giant planet Uranus with rings and some of its moons, obtained on November 19, 2002, with the ISAAC multi-mode instrument on the 8.2-m VLT ANTU telescope at the ESO Paranal Observatory (Chile). The photo shows Uranus surrounded by its rings and some of the moons, as they appear on a near-infrared image that was obtained in the Ks-band (at wavelength 2.2 µm) with the ISAAC multi-mode instrument on the 8.2-m VLT ANTU telescope. On this VLT near-infrared picture, the contrast between the rings and the planet is strongly enhanced. At the particular wavelength at which this observation was made, the infalling sunlight is almost completely absorbed by gaseous methane present in the planetary atmosphere and the disc of Uranus therefore appears unsually dark. At the same time, the icy material in the rings reflects the sunlight and appears comparatively bright. Uranus is unique among the planets of the solar system in having a tilted rotation axis that is close to the main solar system plane in which most planets move (the "Ecliptic"). At the time of the Voyager-2 encounter (1986), the southern pole was oriented toward the Earth. Sixteen years later (corresponding to about one-fifth of Uranus' 84-year period of revolution), the Uranian ring system were seen at an angle that is comparable to the one under which we see Saturn when its ring system is most "open". Seven of the moons of Uranus can be identified. Of these, Titania and Oberon are the brightest (visual magnitude about 14). The much smaller and fainter Puck and Portia have visual magnitude about 21 and are barely visible in the photo.

Provider: European Southern Observatory

Image Source: https://www.eso.org/public/images/eso0237a/

Curator: European Southern Observatory, Garching bei München, Germany

Image Use Policy: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

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Image Details

Image Type
Observation
Object Name
Uranus
Subject - Solar System
Planet
Planet > Satellite

Color Mapping

  Telescope Spectral Band Wavelength
Pseudocolor VLT (ISAAC) Infrared (K) 2.2 µm
Spectrum_base
Pseudocolor
Eso_eso0237a_1280
×
ID
eso0237a
Subject Category
A.1   A.1.4  
Subject Name
Uranus
Credits
ESO
Release Date
2002-12-20T00:00:00
Lightyears
Redshift
Reference Url
https://www.eso.org/public/images/eso0237a/
Type
Observation
Image Quality
Distance Notes
Facility
Very Large Telescope
Instrument
ISAAC
Color Assignment
Pseudocolor
Band
Infrared
Bandpass
K
Central Wavelength
2200
Start Time
Integration Time
Dataset ID
Notes
Coordinate Frame
Equinox
Reference Value
Reference Dimension
2480.0, 2887.0
Reference Pixel
Scale
Rotation
Coordinate System Projection:
Quality
FITS Header
Notes
Creator (Curator)
European Southern Observatory
URL
http://www.eso.org/
Name
Email
Telephone
Address
Karl-Schwarzschild-Strasse 2
City
Garching bei München
State/Province
Postal Code
D-85748
Country
Germany
Rights
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Publisher
European Southern Observatory
Publisher ID
eso
Resource ID
eso0237a
Metadata Date
2023-10-11T09:26:56.104449
Metadata Version
1.1
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Detailed color mapping information coming soon...

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There is no distance meta data in this image.

 

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