Webb Just Spent 17 Hours Staring at Uranus-and Found Its Auroras Are Even Weirder Than We Thought
Gizmodo • • general
Key Points:
- The Webb Space Telescope conducted a 17-hour observation of Uranus on January 19, using its Near-Infrared Spectrograph to map the temperature and ion density about 3,000 miles above the planet’s clouds, revealing new details about its auroras and magnetic field.
- Uranus has a uniquely tilted rotation and magnetic axis, causing a variable magnetosphere that produces complex auroral patterns; Webb detected two bright auroral bands near the magnetic poles and a depletion of ions between them, linked to magnetic field line behavior.
- This is the first three-dimensional view of Uranus’s upper atmosphere, showing how energy moves upward and how the planet’s lopsided magnetic field influences atmospheric phenomena, deepening understanding of ice giant magnetosph
