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By NASA
Curiosity Navigation Curiosity Home Mission Overview Where is Curiosity? Mission Updates Science Overview Instruments Highlights Exploration Goals News and Features Multimedia Curiosity Raw Images Images Videos Audio Mosaics More Resources Mars Missions Mars Sample Return Mars Perseverance Rover Mars Curiosity Rover MAVEN Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Mars Odyssey More Mars Missions The Solar System The Sun Mercury Venus Earth The Moon Mars Jupiter Saturn Uranus Neptune Pluto & Dwarf Planets Asteroids, Comets & Meteors The Kuiper Belt The Oort Cloud 2 min read
Sols 4402-4415: Rover Decks and Sequence Calls for the Holidays
An image under the left-front wheel of NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity shows a block that Curiosity drove over and possibly broke in half. The rover acquired this image using its Mars Descent Imager (MARDI) on sol 4396 — Martian day 4,396 of the Mars Science Laboratory mission — on Dec. 18, 2024 at 06:03:35 UTC. NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS Earth planning date: Friday, Dec. 20, 2024
Welcome to the 2024 holiday plan for Curiosity! This year we’re spanning 14 sols to last us through the Earth new year. And this is my fourth year operating Mastcam during the holidays (throwback to 2023 Marsmas!). I already knew to expect a long day, so I got my lunch prepared — blew Mars a kiss in the pre-dawn sky — and headed to work at 0600 Pacific time to start planning prep. Luckily my team got a head start on Mastcam images by including a full 360-degree panorama, post-drive, last plan, so I just had to fill in some gaps and cover some buttes with our higher-resolution camera. In total we’re only planning about 438 images this holiday, which is a pretty light haul if you can believe it! We also didn’t pass SRAP to unstow the arm (again) today, which is a bummer for science but usually makes my job easier since Mastcam doesn’t have to worry about where the arm might be during our imaging. One instrument’s coal is another instrument’s present!
So we’re doing things a little funky this holiday. We’re planning science on the first, seventh, 13th, and 14th sols — with a drive and a soliday! The hardest part of this plan was keeping it all straight in our heads.
Without any contact science planned, MAHLI went on holiday early (actually, she’s been out all week!) and APXS only had to babysit an atmospheric integration, which doesn’t require any arm motion. ChemCam has three LIBS and four RMI mosaics planned, which is definitely more than usual. But actually, the highest sequence count for today goes to Mastcam! Our usual limit is around 20 sequences for complexity reasons, but today I delivered 34 total sequences. Of those 34 sequences, 10 are for tracking surface changes from wind, seven are for measuring the atmospheric opacity, three are ChemCam LIBS documentations, three are for documenting our location post-drive, two are large mosaics of Texoli and Wilkerson buttes, and two are for noctilucent cloud searching (our first attempts to find clouds this Martian winter!).
With any luck, we’ll start passing SRAP again in 2025 after another approximately 58-meter drive (about 190 feet). Until then, Earthlings — Merry Marsmas and Happy Earth New Year!
Written by Natalie Moore, Mission Operations Specialist at Malin Space Science Systems
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Last Updated Dec 30, 2024 Related Terms
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By NASA
Curiosity Navigation Curiosity Home Mission Overview Where is Curiosity? Mission Updates Science Overview Instruments Highlights Exploration Goals News and Features Multimedia Curiosity Raw Images Images Videos Audio Mosaics More Resources Mars Missions Mars Sample Return Mars Perseverance Rover Mars Curiosity Rover MAVEN Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Mars Odyssey More Mars Missions The Solar System The Sun Mercury Venus Earth The Moon Mars Jupiter Saturn Uranus Neptune Pluto & Dwarf Planets Asteroids, Comets & Meteors The Kuiper Belt The Oort Cloud 4 min read
Sols 4398-4401: Holidays Ahead, Rocks Under the Wheels
NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity acquired this image using its Left Navigation Camera on Dec. 17, 2024, at 23:24:13 UTC — Sol 4396, or Martian day 4,396, or the Mars Science Laboratory mission. NASA/JPL-Caltech Earth planning date: Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2024
It’s almost holiday time, and preparations are going ahead on Earth and Mars! For myself that means having a packed suitcase sitting behind me to go on my holiday travels tomorrow morning. For Curiosity that means looking forward to a long semi-rest, as we will not do our usual planning for the geology and mineralogy, but will still be monitoring the atmospheric conditions throughout. Today should have been a normal planning day with lots of contact and remote science. Well, Mars had other ideas.
The regular readers of this blog know that we are driving through quite difficult terrain. The image above gives a good impression on what the rover is dealing with: lots of rocks embedded in sand. I think even hiking would be quite difficult there, let alone driving autonomously. Curiosity, thanks to our excellent rover drivers, makes it successfully most of the time, but here and there Mars just doesn’t play nice. Thus, the rover stopped after 14 meters (about 46 feet) of a planned much longer drive. One of the wheels had caught a low spot between two rocks, and — safety first — the rover stopped and waited for our assessment. The rover drivers found no major problem, as it’s just the middle wheel that hit a bit of a rough patch, and driving can continue in this plan. But better safe than sorry, especially on another planet where there are no tow trucks to get us out of difficulty!
There was, however, quite a bit of discussion before we decided that course of action. Not because of the wheels themselves, but because the rover also stands in a position where it can only communicate directly with Earth in limited ways as the antenna is not facing the expected direction after the sudden stop. Of course, we still have the orbiters to talk to our rover, so we know it’s all fine. And — all things are three — this all happened on the penultimate plan of the year! Friday we’ll be planning a large set of sols that the rover will be executing on its own on Mars, monitoring the atmosphere and taking regular images of its surroundings, while the Earth-based team enjoys the well-deserved break. We really want to make sure to have everything going right on a day like today, so we all can enjoy the holidays without worrying about the rover!
With today being the last day of normal science planning, we had lots of ideas, but had to keep the arm stowed. The drive fault also meant that we had to forego arm movements, as the rover was sitting on a few rocks, and one of the wheels in that little depression that stopped us, all in ways that meant that a shift of rover weight (such as occurs when we move the arm) could make the rover move. Avoiding this situation, the team kept the arm stowed and focused on remote observations today. ChemCam observes a vein target called “Monrovia Peak” and takes remote images on the target “Jawbone Canyon” and up Mount Sharp toward the yardang unit. Mastcam looks at the target “Circle X Ranch” to investigate the material around the rocks embedded in the sand, looks at “Anacapa Island,” which is a vein target, “Channel Islands,” which is an aeolian ripple, and target “Gould Mesa,” which gets the team especially excited as this is the first glimpse of the so-called boxwork structures, which we saw from orbit even before Curiosity landed. Finally, we drive away from the spot that held us up today. Let’s hope Mars has read the script this time!
For the looooong break, we are planning autonomous and remote investigations only, and this starts before Friday’s planning, so that we know all is ok! Thus, the other three sols in today’s planning have Aegis, the automated ChemCam LIBS observation, a Mastcam 360° mosaic, and many, many atmospheric observations. It’s going to be a feast for DAN, REMS, and generally the atmospheric science on Mars, while here on Earth we enjoy the treats of the season. The Curiosity team hopes you do, too. See you in 2025!
Written by Susanne Schwenzer, Planetary Geologist at The Open University
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Last Updated Dec 20, 2024 Related Terms
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By NASA
It may seem remarkable that no American spent the Fourth of July holiday in space for the first 21 years of human spaceflight. Not until 1982 and the 35th U.S. human spaceflight did Americans awaken in space on Independence Day, and then bring their spacecraft back to Earth later in the day to a rousing welcome by the President of the United States. Another 10 years elapsed before more Americans found themselves in orbit on July 4. But as flight rates and crew sizes increased, and as Americans began living and working aboard space stations, spending the holiday in orbit turned into an annual event, celebrated with crew members from other nations. Through 2024, 73 Americans have celebrated Independence Day in space, eight of them twice, each in a unique style.
July 4, 1982 – A tale of three shuttles. Left: Space shuttle Columbia makes a touchdown at Edwards Air Force Base (AFB) in California to end the STS-4 mission. Middle: With space shuttle Enterprise as a backdrop, President Ronald W. Reagan, First Lady Nancy Reagan, and NASA Administrator James M. Beggs welcome home STS-4 astronauts Thomas K. “TK” Mattingly and Henry W. Hartsfield. Right: Space shuttle Challenger departs Edwards AFB atop its Shuttle Carrier Aircraft on its way to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
For the first 21 years of human spaceflight, no American astronaut had spent a Fourth of July in space. That all changed with the STS-4 mission. On July 4, 1982, the final day of their flight, astronauts Thomas K. ‘TK’ Mattingly and Henry W. “Hank” Hartsfield guided space shuttle Columbia to its first concrete runway landing at Edwards Air Force Base in California. President Ronald W. Reagan, who two years later instructed NASA to develop a space station, and First Lady Nancy Reagan greeted Mattingly and Hartsfield on the runway as they disembarked from Columbia. Shortly thereafter, the President led a celebration in front of space shuttle Enterprise, saying, “TK and Hank, you’ve just given the American people a Fourth of July present to remember.“ To cap off the event attended by 45,000 people and broadcast live on television, President Reagan gave the signal for the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft carrying Challenger, NASA’s newest space shuttle orbiter, to take off to begin its transcontinental ferry flight to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida.
Left: The STS-50 crew in July 1992. Right: The international STS-71 crew in July 1995.
Ten years passed before American astronauts once again celebrated the Fourth of July holiday in space. The seven astronauts of STS-50 had completed about half of their 14-day USML-1 mission on July 4, 1992, but the busy pace of the science flight allowed little time for celebrations. Three years later, 10 people orbited the Earth during the historic STS-71 first shuttle docking mission to the Mir space station. In fact, on July 4, 1995, space shuttle Atlantis undocked from Mir, returning NASA astronaut Norman E. Thagard and his two cosmonaut colleagues from a four-month mission aboard Mir. By coincidence, for NASA astronauts Bonnie J. Dunbar and Ellen S. Baker, this marked their second Fourth of July in space as they both served on the STS-50 crew three years earlier. The day’s undocking activities left little time for celebrating, although Mission Control played “America the Beautiful” as the wake-up song that morning. To satisfy Thagard’s request, following their landing at KSC, ground teams treated him and his colleagues to some belated Fourth of July fare of hot dogs, hamburgers, and hot fudge sundaes.
July 4, 1996. Left: Shannon W. Lucid aboard the space station Mir. Right: Susan J. Helms in the Spacelab module during the STS-78 mission.
Following Thagard, six other NASA astronauts completed long-duration missions aboard Mir. From March to September 1996, Shannon W. Lucid spent six months aboard the Russian station and as the lone American on the Mir 21 crew, she celebrated the Fourth of July by wearing distinctive Stars-and-Stripes socks. Elsewhere in low Earth orbit, with much of their 17-day Life and Microgravity Sciences mission behind them, the international crew of STS-78 celebrated the Fourth of July holiday aboard space shuttle Columbia. By sheer coincidence, astronaut Susan J. Helms wore Stars-and-Stripes socks identical to Lucid’s.
July 4, 1997. Left: C. Michael Foale aboard the space station Mir. Right: The STS-94 crew aboard space shuttle Columbia.
In 1997, C. Michael Foale took his turn as the resident NASA astronaut aboard Mir. On June 25, a Progress cargo vehicle collided with the station, depressurizing its Spektr module, the one Foale used as sleeping quarters and as a laboratory. On July 4, Foale and his two cosmonaut colleagues, still dealing with the accident’s aftermath and preparing to receive a new cargo craft with critical supplies, did not have time for celebrations. Foale spoke with NASA Administrator Daniel S. Goldin, who called to check on his status and wish him a happy holiday. Concurrently, the seven-member all-NASA STS-94 crew also spent July 4, 1997, in space during the Microgravity Science Laboratory mission aboard space shuttle Columbia. With eight NASA astronauts in orbit, although aboard two spacecraft, this still holds the record as the largest number of Americans off-planet on a Fourth of July.
Left: July 4, 2001. Expedition 2 crew members NASA astronauts Susan J. Helms, left, and James S. Voss. Middle: July 4, 2006. The crew of STS-121 wave American (and one German) flags as they depart crew quarters for their Fourth of July launch. Right: July 4, 2010. NASA astronauts Douglas H. Wheelock, Tracy Caldwell Dyson, and Shannon Walker of Expedition 24.
The start of continuous human habitation aboard the International Space Station in November 2000 has meant that every year since, at least one American astronaut has spent the Independence Day holiday in space. James S. Voss and Susan J. Helms of Expedition 2, the first NASA astronauts to spend the Fourth of July aboard the space station in July 2001, sent an “out of this world” birthday message to America, played during “A Capitol Fourth” celebration in Washington, D.C. For Helms, this marked her second July 4 spent in space in five years. For each of the next eight years, crew rotations and other factors resulted in only one NASA astronaut residing aboard the space station during the Fourth of July holiday. Celebrations tended to be low key, but the entire crew regardless of nationality had the day off from their regular duties. July 4, 2006, marked the first and so far only time that an American crewed spacecraft launched on Independence Day, the liftoff like a giant birthday candle. As they left crew quarters for the ride to the launch pad, the seven-member crew of STS-121 waved flags, six American and one German, for the European Space Agency astronaut. With Jeffery N. Williams working aboard the space station, once the STS-121 crew reached orbit, the seven NASA astronauts comprised the largest number of Americans in space on Independence Day since 1997. In 2010, Expedition 24 marked the first time that three NASA astronauts, Douglas H. Wheelock, Tracy Caldwell Dyson, and Shannon Walker, celebrated the Fourth of July aboard the space station. Wheelock marked the holiday by posting a message on social media about a Congressional Medal of Honor belonging to a soldier killed in action in Vietnam that he took to space.
July 4, 2013. Left: Expedition 36 astronaut Christopher J. Cassidy wears a T-shirt from the Four on the Fourth race in York, Maine. Right: Fellow Expedition 36 astronaut Karen L. Nyberg displays her Fourth of July creation of a cookie she iced in the colors of the American flag.
For Independence Day 2013, Expedition 36 astronaut Christopher J. Cassidy chose to run in the Four on the 4th road race in his hometown of York, Maine. The fact that he lived and worked aboard the space station did not stop him from participating. Wearing the race’s T-shirt, he videotaped a message for the runners in York, and ran on the station’s treadmill, watching a video of the previous year’s race. At the end of the video message, Cassidy encouraged everyone to “celebrate our nation’s birthday with family and friends.” Cassidy and fellow Expedition 36 astronaut Karen L. Nyberg celebrated Independence Day by icing cookies in the colors of the American flag.
Left: July 4, 2015. NASA astronaut Scott J. Kelly records a Fourth of July message during Expedition 44. Right: July 4, 2017. During Expedition 52, NASA astronauts Jack D. Fischer and Peggy A. Whitson show off their patriotic outfits.
On July 4, 2015, NASA astronaut Scott J. Kelly, in the fourth month of his nearly one-year mission aboard the space station, recorded a Fourth of July message for Earthbound viewers. He wished everyone a Happy Independence Day and hoped that he would be able to see some of the fireworks around the country from his lofty perch, orbital mechanics permitting. As crew size aboard the space station increased and crew rotations changed, NASA astronaut Jeffrey N. Williams, celebrating his second Fourth of July in orbit during Expedition 48, holds the distinction as the last American to spend Independence Day alone in space on July 4, 2016. The following year, Expedition 52 astronauts Jack D. Fischer and Peggy A. Whitson recorded a whimsical video, posting it on social media, showing their patriotic attire in various poses.
Left: July 4, 2018. The Expedition 56 crew found the American flag originally flown aboard STS-1 and brought to the space station by STS-135. Right: July 4, 2019. Expedition 60 astronauts Christina H. Koch and Tyler N. “Nick” Hague in their finest patriotic outfits.
For Independence Day 2018, Expedition 56 astronauts Andrew J. “Drew” Feustel, Richard R. “Ricky” Arnold, and Serena M. Auñón-Chancellor retrieved a very special flag from stowage. The 8-by-12-inch American flag first flew into space aboard STS-1, the space shuttle’s inaugural flight, in April 1981. One of a thousand flags flown, it ended up in storage for 20 years until retrieved and flown to the space station on the space shuttle’s final mission, STS-135, in July 2011. The label on the Legacy Flag, “Only to be removed by crew launching from KSC,” referred to the next launch of American astronauts from American soil aboard an American spacecraft, anticipated sometime after the shuttle’s retirement aboard a commercial provider. More on this flag’s incredible journey below. For Independence Day 2019, Expedition 60 astronauts Tyler N. “Nick” Hague and Christina H. Koch, in the fourth month of her record-breaking 11-month mission, to date the longest single flight by a woman, recorded a video message for Earthbound viewers. In particular, they thanked servicemen deployed around the world and reflected on the bright future for America’s human spaceflight program.
Left: July 4, 2020. Expedition 63 astronauts Christopher J. Cassidy, left, Douglas G. Hurley, and Robert L. Behnken, hold the Legacy Flag flown on STS-1 and STS-135. Right: July 4, 2021. The Expedition 65 crew, K. Megan McArthur, left, Mark T. Vande Hei, and R. Shane Kimbrough, tapes a Fourth of July message.
During their Independence Day video message on July 4, 2020, Expedition 63 astronauts Christopher J. Cassidy, Douglas G. Hurley, and Robert L. Behnken wished Americans a happy Fourth of July, and looked ahead to future missions to the Moon and beyond. Behnken, holding the Legacy Flag that had waited for them aboard the station for nine years, added that he and Hurley would return it to the ground since they had arrived aboard the first American crewed vehicle to launch from American soil following the retirement of the space shuttle. He indicated that the flag would later return to space aboard the first American crewed flight to the Moon as part of the Artemis program. In their video message on July 4, 2021, Expedition 65 astronauts K. Megan McArthur, R. Shane Kimbrough, and Mark T. Vande Hei wished everyone a Happy Fourth of July and looked forward to future exploration missions to the Moon.
July 4, 2022. Left: Expedition 67 NASA astronauts Robert T. Hines, left, and Kjell N. Lindgren during their recorded Fourth of July message. Right: The Expedition 67 crew photographed the American flag and its patches in the space station’s Cupola.
On July 4, 2022, Expedition 67 NASA astronauts Kjell N. Lindgren, Robert T. Hines, and Jessica A. Watkins spent the holiday aboard the space station. Lindgren and Hines recorded a video message wishing everyone a happy Fourth of July holiday. Hines posted on Twitter, now X, “Happy Birthday America! The crew of [Crew Dragon] Freedom and Expedition 67 wishes everyone back home a happy Independence Day!”
Left: July 4, 2023. Expedition 69 NASA astronauts Francisco “Frank” C. Rubio, left, Stephen G. Bowen, and Warren W. “Woody” Hoburg send an Independence Day greeting. Right: July 4, 2024. Six NASA astronauts onboard the space station for Independence Day.
In 2023, Expedition 69 NASA astronauts Francisco “Frank” C. Rubio, Stephen G. Bowen, and Warren W. “Woody” Hoburg recorded a Fourth of July greeting from the space station, played during “A Capitol Fourth” celebration in Washington, D.C., wishing everyone a Happy Independence Day. July 4, 2024, finds six NASA astronauts, the largest number of Americans in space on the Fourth of July since 2006, aboard the space station, having arrived by three different vehicles – Matthew S. Dominick, Michael R. Barratt, and Jeanette J. Epps by Crew Dragon, Tracy Caldwell Dyson by Soyuz, and Barry E. “Butch” Wilmore and Sunita L. Williams by Starliner. For Barratt and Dyson, this marked their second July 4 holiday in space. In the coming years, more American astronauts will celebrate Independence Day aboard the space station, and one day we can look forward to some of them celebrating the holiday on or near the Moon.
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By NASA
4 Min Read NASA’s Webb Rings in Holidays With Ringed Planet Uranus
A slice of the most recent Wide-field image of Uranus from NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) on NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI NASA’s 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 a seasonal polar cap. The image expands upon a two-color version released earlier this year, adding additional wavelength coverage for a more detailed look.
With its exquisite sensitivity, Webb captured Uranus’ dim inner and outer rings, including the elusive Zeta ring – the extremely faint and diffuse ring closest to the planet. It also imaged many of the planet’s 27 known moons, even seeing some small moons within the rings.
Image: Uranus and its rings
This image of Uranus from NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) on NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope exquisitely captures Uranus’s seasonal north polar cap and dim inner and outer rings. This Webb image also shows 9 of the planet’s 27 moons – clockwise starting at 2 o’clock, they are: Rosalind, Puck, Belinda, Desdemona, Cressida, Bianca, Portia, Juliet, and Perdita.NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI In visible wavelengths as seen by Voyager 2 in the 1980s, Uranus appeared as a placid, solid blue ball. In infrared wavelengths, Webb is revealing a strange and dynamic ice world filled with exciting atmospheric features.
One of the most striking of these is the planet’s seasonal north polar cloud cap. Compared to the Webb image from earlier this year, some details of the cap are easier to see in these newer images. These include the bright, white, inner cap and the dark lane in the bottom of the polar cap, toward the lower latitudes.
Several bright storms can also be seen near and below the southern border of the polar cap. The number of these storms, and how frequently and where they appear in Uranus’s atmosphere, might be due to a combination of seasonal and meteorological effects.
The polar cap appears to become more prominent when the planet’s pole begins to point toward the Sun, as it approaches solstice and receives more sunlight. Uranus reaches its next solstice in 2028, and astronomers are eager to watch any possible changes in the structure of these features. Webb will help disentangle the seasonal and meteorological effects that influence Uranus’s storms, which is critical to help astronomers understand the planet’s complex atmosphere.
Image: Uranus Wide-Field
This wide-field image of Uranus from NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) on NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope shows the planet amid a smattering of distant background galaxies. This image also includes 14 of the planet’s 27 moons: Oberon, Titania, Umbriel, Juliet, Perdita, Rosalind, Puck, Belinda, Desdemona, Cressida, Ariel, Miranda, Bianca, and Portia.NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI Because Uranus spins on its side at a tilt of about 98 degrees, it has the most extreme seasons in the solar system. For nearly a quarter of each Uranian year, the Sun shines over one pole, plunging the other half of the planet into a dark, 21-year-long winter.
With Webb’s unparalleled infrared resolution and sensitivity, astronomers now see Uranus and its unique features with groundbreaking new clarity. These details, especially of the close-in Zeta ring, will be invaluable to planning any future missions to Uranus.
Uranus can also serve as a proxy for studying the nearly 2,000 similarly sized exoplanets that have been discovered in the last few decades. This “exoplanet in our backyard” can help astronomers understand how planets of this size work, what their meteorology is like, and how they formed. This can in turn help us understand our own solar system as a whole by placing it in a larger context.
Image: Uranus’ Moons Labelled
Annotated wide-field compass image of Uranus with some of its 27 moons and a few prominent stars (with characteristic diffraction spikes) labelled.NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI The James Webb Space Telescope is the world’s premier space science observatory. Webb is solving mysteries in our solar system, looking beyond to distant worlds around other stars, and probing the mysterious structures and origins of our universe and our place in it. Webb is an international program led by NASA with its partners, ESA (European Space Agency) and the Canadian Space Agency.
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Media Contacts
Laura Betz – laura.e.betz@nasa.gov, Rob Gutro– rob.gutro@nasa.gov
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, , Greenbelt, Md.
Ann Jenkins- jenkins@stsci.edu, Christine Pulliam – cpulliam@stsci.edu
Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Md.
Related Information
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More Webb News – https://science.nasa.gov/mission/webb/latestnews/
More Webb Images – https://science.nasa.gov/mission/webb/multimedia/images/
Webb Mission Page – https://science.nasa.gov/mission/webb/
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Last Updated Dec 18, 2023 EditorSteve SabiaContactLaura Betz Related Terms
James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) Goddard Space Flight Center Missions Planets The Solar System Uranus Uranus Moons View the full article
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By European Space Agency
The NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope recently trained its sights on weird and enigmatic Uranus, an ice giant that orbits on its side. What Webb found is a dynamic world with rings, moons, storms, and other atmospheric features – including a seasonal polar cap. The image expands upon a two-colour version released earlier this year, adding additional wavelength coverage for a more detailed look.
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