Universe Today
So far, only one spacecraft has ever captured an image of Uranus: NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft. So let's take a look at some pictures of Uranus, some captured by Voyager 2, and others seen from Hubble, and even here on the ground.
[/caption] This is the classic image of Uranus, taken by NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft during its 1986 flyby of Uranus. During this mission, Voyager 2 came within 81,500 kilometers of the cloudtops of Uranus. Until then, the best pictures of Uranus came from telescopes on Earth. Nothing compared to the pictures of Uranus sent back by Voyager 2.
[caption id="attachment_18967" align="alignnone" width="580" caption="Uranus seen from Earth. Image credit: Keck"]
[/caption] This
beautiful picture
of Uranus might look like it was captured by a space telescope, but it was actually taken from the powerful Keck telescope located on Hawaii's Mauna Kea. This image shows Uranus in the infrared spectrum, which reveals the detailed cloud patterns in the atmosphere of the planet.
[caption id="attachment_18968" align="alignnone" width="580" caption="Uranus with its moons and rings. Image credit: Hubble"]
[/caption]
This Uranus pic was captured by the Hubble Space Telescope. On the left is the image itself, and then on the right are the names of all the moons captured in this photograph of Uranus.
[caption id="attachment_18969" align="alignnone" width="577" caption="Crescent Uranus. Image credit: NASA/JPL"]
[/caption]
This beautiful image of Uranus was captured by NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft curing its 1986 flyby of the planet. It was actually three images captured at different wavelengths and then combined on computer.
Like these pictures of Uranus? Here are some
images of Pluto
, and
photographs of the Sun
.
If you'd like more info on Uranus, check out
Hubblesite's News Releases about Uranus
. And here's a link to the
NASA's Solar System Exploration Guide to Uranus
.
We have recorded an episode of Astronomy Cast just
about Uranus
. You can access it here:
Episode 62: Uranus
.
