James Webb took a spectacular shot of Uranus with bright rings

The James Webb Space Telescope continues to delight visitors with interesting photographs. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has published a spectacular image of Uranus.

Here's What We Know

The photo shows the rings and some of the satellites of the seventh planet from the Sun. Equator of Uranus is rotated by 90 degrees to the plane of the orbit. In simple terms, the planet is rotating, lying on its side.

Because of its unusual position, day and night last for years at the poles of Uranus. The ice giant makes a complete revolution around the Sun in 84 Earth years. The planet is now coming to the end of spring and summer will begin in 2028.

Uranus has 13 rings. An image taken by the James Webb Space Telescope perfectly shows 11 of them. Some of the rings are very bright, so they appear to merge into one big, wide ring.

The telescope also captured some of Uranus' satellites. The planet has a total of 27 of them. The six brightest satellites are signed in the image above.

James Webb is equipped with a NIRCam camera. It's the camera that took the picture of Uranus. The bright area on the right side of the planet is called the polar cap. It is only visible when it is in direct sunlight.

Astronomers hope the data will help learn more about the polar cap. When autumn arrives on the planet, it will disappear again. The clouds, which can also be seen in the photo, are likely formed by thunderstorm activity.

Source: NASA