Uranus’s passage in front of a star that is about 400 light years from Earth for an hour on April 7 has allowed us to better understand the atmosphere and rings of that planet.
Observing the alignment allows NASA scientists to measure the temperatures and composition of the Uranus stratosphere (the middle layer of the atmosphere of a planet) and determine how it has changed in the last 30 years since the last significant star concealment of Uranus.
“As Urano began to hide the star, the planet’s atmosphere refracted the stellar light, which caused it to be gradually attenu Various layers of altitude, “said William Saunders, a planetary scientist at the NASA Langley Research Center and study leader.
These data consist mainly of temperature, density and stratosphere pressure. Data analysis will help researchers understand how Uranus average atmosphere works and could facilitate future Uranus explorations.
Only visible from western America
To observe this unusual event, which lasted about an hour and was only visible from western North America, NASA Langley’s planetary scientists led an international team of more than 30 astronomers who used 18 professional observatories.
Knowing Uranus’s location and orbit is not easy. In 1986, NASA’s Voyager 2 space probe became the first and only spacecraft to fly over the planet, 10 years before the last bright stellar concealment occurred in 1996. In addition, Uranus’s exact position in space only has a precision of approximately 160 kilometers, which makes the analysis of these new atmospheric data crucial for the future exploration of the NASA of the NASA of the NASA.
Preparations since November
On November 12, 2024, NASA Langley researchers and collaborators conducted a flight test to prepare for the April concealment. Langley coordinated two telescopes in Japan and one in Thailand to observe a more dimter stellar concealment, visible only from Asia. As a result, these observers learned to calibrate their instruments to observe star concealments, and NASA could prove their theory that the collaboration of several observatories could capture the great Uranus event in April.
Researchers at the Paris Observatory and the Institute of Space Sciences, in contact with NASA, also coordinated the observations of the concealment of November 2024 from two telescopes in India. These observations of Uranus and their rings allowed the researchers, who were also part of the concealment team of April 7, improve the predictions on the date of April 7 with precision of seconds and also improved the modeling to update Uranus’s planned location during the concealment in 200 kilometers.
Uranus is almost 3.2 billion kilometers from the earth and has an atmosphere composed mainly of hydrogen and helium. It does not have a solid surface, but a soft surface of water, ammonia and methane. It is called ice giant because its interior contains a large number of these swirling fluids with relatively low freezing points. While Saturn is the best known planet for its rings, Uranus has 13,000 million kilometers.
Related news :