Webb rings in holidays with ringed planet Uranus

The James Webb Space Telescope recently trained its sights on unusual and enigmatic Uranus, an ice giant that spins on its side. Webb captured this dynamic world with rings, moons, storms, and other atmospheric features—including ...

Webb adds another ringed world with new image of Uranus

Following in the footsteps of the Neptune image released in 2022, the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope has taken a stunning image of the solar system's other ice giant, the planet Uranus. The new image features dramatic ...

Why Jupiter doesn't have rings like Saturn

Because it's bigger, Jupiter ought to have larger, more spectacular rings than Saturn has. But new UC Riverside research shows Jupiter's massive moons prevent that vision from lighting up the night sky.

Hubble takes a grand tour of the solar system

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has completed its annual grand tour of the outer Solar System. This is the realm of the giant planets—Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune—extending as far as 30 times the distance ...

First X-rays from Uranus discovered

Astronomers have detected X-rays from Uranus for the first time, using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory. This result may help scientists learn more about this enigmatic ice giant planet in our solar system.

Uranian moons in new light

More than 230 years ago astronomer William Herschel discovered the planet Uranus and two of its moons. Using the Herschel Space Observatory, a group of astronomers led by Örs H. Detre of the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy ...

A big space crash likely made Uranus lopsided

Uranus is a lopsided oddity, the only planet to spin on its side. Scientists now think they know how it got that way: It was pushed over by a rock at least twice as big as Earth.

Encouraging prospects for moon hunters

Astrophysicists of the University of Zürich, ETH Zürich and the NCCR PlanetS show how the icy moons of Uranus were born. Their result suggests that such potentially habitable worlds are much more abundant in the Universe ...

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