Ice Giant Archives

This zoomed-in image of Uranus, captured by Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) Feb. 6, 2023, reveals stunning views of the planet’s rings. The planet displays a blue hue in this representative-color image, made by combining data from two filters (F140M, F300M) at 1.4 and 3.0 microns, which are shown here as blue and orange, respectively Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI. Image processing: J. DePasquale (STScI)

Astrogeology, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Ice Giant, Icy Worlds, Status Report, Uranus, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

Uranus Study Report: Keck Institute for Space Studies (KISS) Workshop

by Keith CowingDecember 5, 2024May 12, 2025

Determining the internal structure of Uranus is a key objective for planetary science. Knowledge of Uranus’s bulk composition and the distribution of elements is crucial to understanding its origin and […]

Ariel, Astrogeology, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Ice Giant, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Mapping, Geodesy, Cartography, Bathymetry, Miranda, Oberon, Press Release, Titania, Umbriel, Uranus, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

Uranus’ Swaying Moons Will Help Spacecraft Seek Out Hidden Oceans

by Keith CowingNovember 29, 2024May 12, 2025

When NASA’s Voyager 2 flew by Uranus in 1986, it captured grainy photographs of large ice-covered moons. Now nearly 40 years later, NASA plans to send another spacecraft to Uranus, […]

Mass versus radius diagram of observed and synthetic planets. The four panels show the resulting planets using different model variations contrasted against the observational data from Parc et al. (2024). The synthetic data for all models is sampled according to the stellar mass distribution of the observations and an estimate of the detection and transit probability is applied. More saturated dots imply that the planet was sampled multiple times due to being more likely to be detected and their color is given by the planets’ water mass fraction. -- astro-ph.EP

Astrogeology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Ice Giant, Icy Worlds, Status Report

Water-rich sub-Neptunes and Rocky Super Earths Around Different Stars: Radii Shaped by Volatile Partitioning, Formation, and Evolution

by Keith CowingNovember 28, 2024May 12, 2025

The nature of sub-Neptunes remains unknown due to degeneracies in interior structure solutions. However, a statistical set of small planets with measured masses and radii has been compiled. It can […]

Models for the interior structures of the ice-giant planets Uranus and Neptune have two distinct, intermediate layers: an upper, water-rich convecting layer where disorganized magnetic fields are generated, and a lower, non-convecting hydrocarbon-rich layer. New computer simulations show that icy materials naturally separate at high pressure and temperature into these two layers. Credit Burkhard Militzer, UC Berkeley

Astrogeology, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Ice Giant, Icy Worlds, Neptune, Press Release, Uranus, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

A Clue To What Lies Beneath The Bland Surfaces Of Uranus And Neptune

by Keith CowingNovember 26, 2024May 12, 2025

Diamond rain? Super-ionic water? These are just two proposals that planetary scientists have come up with for what lies beneath the thick, bluish, hydrogen-and-helium atmospheres of Uranus and Neptune, our […]

The first panel of this artist’s concept depicts how Uranus’s magnetosphere — its protective bubble — was behaving before the flyby of NASA’s Voyager 2. The second panel shows an unusual kind of solar weather was happening during the 1986 flyby, giving scientists a skewed view of the magnetosphere. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

AI - Data - Apps - Cybernetics, Ice Giant, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Missions & Hardware, Press Release, Space Weather & Heliophysics, Uranus

Mining Old Data From NASA’s Voyager 2 Solves Several Uranus Mysteries

by Keith CowingNovember 18, 2024May 12, 2025

NASA’s Voyager 2 flyby of Uranus decades ago shaped scientists’ understanding of the planet but also introduced unexplained oddities. A recent data dive has offered answers.

Reprocessed images show the true colors of Uranus (left) and Neptune. — University of Oxford

Astrochemistry, Astrogeology, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Ice Giant, Icy Worlds, Neptune, Status Report, Uranus, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

H2-H2O Demixing In Uranus And Neptune: Adiabatic Structure Models

by Keith CowingOctober 30, 2024May 12, 2025

Demixing properties of planetary major constituents influence the interior structure and evolution of planets. Comparing experimental and computational data on the miscibility of hydrogen and water to adiabatic profiles suggests […]

The weighted abundance of CO calculated using Equation 1 has been shown as a heat map as a function of C/O and Kzz in each panel. Each row corresponds to a different Teq value from 1100 K to 600 K from top to bottom. Each column correspond to a different Tint value between 30 K and 500 K from left to right. Note that the C/O has been shown relative to the assumed solar value of 0.458 in this plot. -- astro-ph.EP

Astronomy & Telescopes, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Gas Giants, Habitable Zones, Ice Giant, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Neptune, Status Report

Effects of Planetary Parameters on Disequilibrium Chemistry in Irradiated Planetary Atmospheres: From Gas Giants to Sub-Neptunes

by Keith CowingOctober 23, 2024May 12, 2025

A primary goal of characterizing exoplanet atmospheres is to constrain planetary bulk properties, such as their metallicity, C/O ratio, and intrinsic heat. However, there are significant uncertainties in many aspects […]

The left panel is Hubble's actual view of Uranus – the planet is a light blue sphere, with a white circle covering the right half of the planet (the southern pole). The right panel is the actual view of Uranus from New Horizons. The planet appears as a tiny whiteish dot. -- STSCI/NASA/SwRI (larger image)

Astrogeology, Astronomy & Telescopes, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Gas Giants, Ice Giant, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Mapping, Geodesy, Cartography, Bathymetry, Missions & Hardware, Press Release, Stellar Cartography, Uranus

Exoplanet Analysis Practice Using Uranus, Hubble, And New Horizons

by Keith CowingOctober 10, 2024May 12, 2025

NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope and New Horizons spacecraft simultaneously set their sights on Uranus recently, allowing scientists to make a direct comparison of the planet from two very different viewpoints. […]

Possible methane vapor profiles in ice giants. In red we plot several possible methane vapor profiles constrained by observations from Sromovsky et al. (2014) and Irwin et al. (2021) (we plot the range of the latitudinal variations) and by saturation curves corresponding to Voyager 2 temperature profiles. Criterion curves in black indicate when moist convection is inhibited: when the specific concentration is higher than the critical specific concentration and the level is saturated, then the criterion applies. These possible methane vapor profiles are inspired by the tested profiles in Sromovsky et al. (2019) who talk about "descended profiles". -- astro-ph.EP

Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Ice Giant, Neptune, Status Report, Uranus

Storms and Convection on Uranus and Neptune: Impact of Methane Abundance Revealed by a 3D Cloud-resolving Model

by Keith CowingSeptember 16, 2024May 12, 2025

Uranus and Neptune have atmospheres dominated by molecular hydrogen and helium. In the upper troposphere, methane is the third main molecule and condenses, yielding a vertical gradient in CH4. This […]

Ariel, Ice Giant, Icy Worlds, Miranda, Oberon, Press Release, Titania, Umbriel, Uranus, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

Ice Giant Systems Seminar Series: Are Uranus’ Large Moons Ocean Worlds? The Developing Spectroscopic Picture

by Keith CowingSeptember 9, 2024May 12, 2025

Date/Time: September 10, 11am ETSpeaker: Dr. Richard Cartwright (JHU/APL)Topic: Are Uranus’ Large Moons Ocean Worlds? The Developing Spectroscopic Picture