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The planet Uranus on a black background. The planet appears blue with a large, white patch taking up the right half. The patch is whitest at the center, then fades into blue at it expands from right to left. A thin outline of Uranus is also white. Around the planet is a system of nested rings. The outermost ring is the brightest while the innermost ring is the faintest. Unlike Saturn’s horizontal rings, the rings of Uranus are vertical and so they appear to surround the planet in an oval shape. There are 9 blueish white dots scattered around the rings.

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The planet Uranus on a black background. The planet appears blue with a large, white patch taking up the right half. The patch is whitest at the center, then fades into blue at it expands from right to left. A thin outline of Uranus is also white. Around the planet is a system of nested rings. The outermost ring is the brightest while the innermost ring is the faintest. Unlike Saturn’s horizontal rings, the rings of Uranus are vertical and so they appear to surround the planet in an oval shape. There are 9 blueish white dots scattered around the rings.
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Kelly Lepo (kellylepo@astrodon.social)'s status on Tuesday, 19-Dec-2023 15:04:23 JST Kelly Lepo
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Uranus is an oddball planet — it spins on its side, tilted about 98 degrees so that its rotational axis is almost parallel to the plane of its orbit. This means that for about a quarter of its 84-year-long orbit, one pole gets all of the sunlight (summer), and the other is plunged into darkness (winter). Uranus is approaching its northern summer solstice, which will happen in 2028.
In this image, we can see the bright white northern polar cap and bright storms at lower latitudes.

In conversation about a year ago from astrodon.social permalink