File:Clear and Hazy Gas Layers in Uranus' Atmosphere (1996-15-414).tiff

Clear_and_Hazy_Gas_Layers_in_Uranus'_Atmosphere_(1996-15-414).tiff(450 × 293 pixels, file size: 91 KB, MIME type: image/tiff)

Captions

Captions

Hubble Space Telescope has peered deep into Uranus' atmosphere to see clear and hazy layers created by a mixture of gases. Using infrared filters, Hubble captured detailed features of three layers of Uranus' atmosphere.

Summary

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Description
English: Hubble Space Telescope has peered deep into Uranus' atmosphere to see clear and hazy layers created by a mixture of gases. Using infrared filters, Hubble captured detailed features of three layers of Uranus' atmosphere. Hubble's images are different from the ones taken by the Voyager 2 spacecraft, which flew by Uranus 10 years ago. Those images - not taken in infrared light - showed a greenish-blue disk with very little detail. The infrared image allows astronomers to probe the structure of Uranus' atmosphere, which consists of mostly hydrogen with traces of methane. The red around the planet's edge represents a very thin haze at a high altitude. The haze is so thin that it can only be seen by looking at the edges of the disk, and is similar to looking at the edge of a soap bubble. The yellow near the bottom of Uranus is another hazy layer. The deepest layer, the blue near the top of Uranus, shows a clearer atmosphere. Image processing has been used to brighten the rings around Uranus so that astronomers can study their structure. In reality, the rings are as dark as black lava or charcoal. This false color picture was assembled from several exposures taken July 3, 1995 by the Wide Field Planetary Camera-2.
Date 24 April 1996 (upload date)
Source Clear and Hazy Gas Layers in Uranus' Atmosphere
Author Credit: Erich Karkoschka (University of Arizona Lunar & Planetary Lab) and NASA
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Keywords
InfoField
Planetary Atmospheres/Weather; Planets; Solar System; Uranus

Licensing

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Public domain This file is in the public domain because it was created by NASA and ESA. NASA Hubble material (and ESA Hubble material prior to 2009) is copyright-free and may be freely used as in the public domain without fee, on the condition that only NASA, STScI, and/or ESA is credited as the source of the material. This license does not apply if ESA material created after 2008 or source material from other organizations is in use.
The material was created for NASA by Space Telescope Science Institute under Contract NAS5-26555, or for ESA by the Hubble European Space Agency Information Centre. Copyright statement at hubblesite.org or 2008 copyright statement at spacetelescope.org.
For material created by the European Space Agency on the spacetelescope.org site since 2009, use the {{ESA-Hubble}} tag.

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current23:24, 14 June 2024Thumbnail for version as of 23:24, 14 June 2024450 × 293 (91 KB)OptimusPrimeBot (talk | contribs)#Spacemedia - Upload of https://stsci-opo.org/STScI-01EVTAQ9NW60P35WR4VKWM9Q9V.tif via Commons:Spacemedia

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