New Photos Show Blazingly Bright Uranus & Neptune in Infrared

Mike Wall,


A shot of faraway Neptune in infrared light, captured using the adaptive optics system at Hawaii's Keck Observatory.
CREDIT: Mike Brown/Caltech

The distant "ice giant" planets Uranus and Neptune look like worlds aflame in new photos captured by Hawaii's Keck Observatory.

To the naked eye, Neptune would appear blue and Uranus bluish-green. But Caltech astronomer Mike Brown snapped the new pictures in infrared light, using Keck's adaptive optics system. So the two planets blaze reddish-orange, like embers glowing in the dark night of deep space.

Brown posted the pictures via Twitter from Sept. 18 to Sept. 20. Two shots show bright streaks on Neptune, which is about 17 times as massive as Earth and orbits 30 times farther from the sun than our planet does.

This shot, taken in infrared light using the adaptive optics system at Hawaii's Keck Observatory, shows Neptune and its moon Triton (lower right).
CREDIT: Mike Brown/Caltech

These streaks represent high-altitude clouds that are reflecting a lot of light. Neptune is a stormy place, hosting some of the most violent maelstroms in the solar system.


A view of Uranus in infrared light, captured by Hawaii's Keck Observatory. The moon Miranda is to the upper left of Uranus, and the moon Puck is a faint smudge to the upper right. The bright splotches on Uranus' disk are clouds.
CREDIT: Mike Brown/Caltech

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