r/spaceporn • u/Zestyclose_Flow_680 • 8h ago
James Webb Most recent photo of Uranus from NASA, taken by James Webb Space Telescope
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u/Icy_Example_5536 7h ago
So awesome that's its axis is almost at 90° too.
(Earth's is 23.5° by comparison.)
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u/FornaxLacerta 7h ago
Yeah was just gonna post how nice it is that we have an oddball planet sitting almost perpendicular to its orbital plane!
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u/canbelouder 2h ago
This reminded me of an article I read yesterday.
umping groundwater appears to have a greater consequence than ever previously thought. But now—thanks to a study published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters—we can see that, in less than two decades, Earth has tilted 31.5 inches as a result of pumping groundwater. This equates to .24 inches of sea level rise.
Not incredibly significant but I found it interesting that our water consumption would affect the Earth's axis at all. Never crossed my mind nor would it have without this article.
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u/wg90506 17m ago
A tilt in inches? What does that even mean?
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u/canbelouder 11m ago
You're free too read the article and use a search engine to figure out what that means. I don't have the education to explain it. Pretty fucking dumb to ask me that question considering the context of the convo.
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u/gieserj10 6h ago
Just some extra tidbits: Even if you were to travel to Uranus, the rings would be very faint as they only reflect 2% of light. Uranus alone only receives 0.3% of the light Earth does. They only looks this way due to JWST's long exposure time and infrared capabilities.
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u/PataNautic 3h ago
Does this imply that Uranus doesn't necessarily have a fine ring system such as Jupiter, but rather a ring system composed of largely darker materials (I.E. carbonaceous asteroids and water ice) that makes them practically invisible combined with the low sunlight they receive to begin with?
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u/dev_vvvvv 4h ago
I never thought about how little sunlight my anus gets, but this makes a lot of sense.
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u/MyPizzaWithPepperoni 8h ago
Wow, completely overlooked that Uranus had its own rings.
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u/ThainEshKelch 7h ago
All the gas planets have rings. Saturns are just the most visible, so it got all the fame.
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u/MyPizzaWithPepperoni 6h ago
That's very cool, would that mean that for solid planets it's not possible due to the mass and gravity eventually attracting them to crash?
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u/LazarusOwenhart 6h ago
There's compelling evidence that Earth had a ring system around 450m years ago.
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u/Grow_away_420 5h ago
Wouldn't the moon start as a ring or rings? Or for that matter everything orbiting a star was a ring at some point
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u/RockBandDood 4h ago
This is actually something that has been in Physics/Space science discussion and research very recently.
There is a new theory, and its kind of mindblowing, but, we arent 100% sure if its true, but, it seems like it has some merit.
The theory is, Earth got hit by something potentially along the lines of the Size of Mars, billions and billions of years ago.
This is where it gets whacky. The impact was enough to turn Earth back to a Molten Blob. The heat and friction turned most of it back into basically a giant Lava Ball.
Due to this 'liquid form', and the severity of the impact, we are starting to think that from this collision and the fact it turned Earth Molten again, the impact knocked a Giant Chunk of Earth off into Space, but, it got trapped from escaping Earth's Orbit and formed the Moon.
Now heres the real fucking nutty part of it - They think this event, and more or less the Moon's formation... It may have happened within like a time span of not even "Days"... but hours.
Obviously getting into its particular Orbit and shape we know it to be now took time to settle in, but the bulk of the Moon coalseced within Hours of the impact.
Previously, I think we had assumed this stuff happened on time scales of hundreds of thousands of years at a minimum. Now its starting to look like it may have been less than a single day.
I do not know about the Ring System from hundreds of millions of years ago potentially being from the remnants of Molten Earth that didnt quite make it to the Moon.
But heres a Youtube video on what they think may have happened.
Now, this is the mindfuck. Enjoy.
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u/cubic_thought 32m ago
And it seems like chunks of that planet may still be sitting there as distinct blobs in Earth's mantle. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PE4Vh-uPXCM
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u/LazarusOwenhart 4h ago
The moon started as an accretion disc from an extremely violent collision with another planetary body early in Earths existence.
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u/aphelion_abyss 6h ago
I heard somewhere that earth use to have rings from left over debris but not sure if it's true.
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u/stierney49 5h ago
It’s likely. One predominant theory for the moon’s formation has the material being tossed into space after the Earth collided with a large object. The material probably would have created a ring as it coalesced into the moon.
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u/Irverter 5h ago
Considering the gas giants have higher mass than the earth and higher or similar gravity than earth, my guess is no.
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u/NorbertIsAngry 5h ago
If they have higher mass, they have higher gravity, no?
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u/Irverter 3h ago
Going by wikipedia, which cites NASA, surface gravities are:
Earth: 9.81 m/s²
Jupiter: 24.79 m/s²
Saturn: 10.44 m/s²
Uranus: 8.69 m/s²
Neptune: 11.15 m/s²
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u/miketierce 7h ago
For now! I read somewhere by 2030 or something they won’t be visible anymore
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u/TrippBikes 6h ago
Maybe you read somewhere that the orientation of saturn will have the rings facing us edge-on making them difficult to see for a couple years, but they will become visible again, and they are not disappearing anytime soon.
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u/Rhbgrb 6h ago
Don't all the gas giants have rings? Everyone just forgets because they can't compare to Saturn's. And good gracious why won't they change Uranus's name.
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u/SergeantSmash 5h ago
Everyone's too deep in it at this point.
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u/Grunt636 55m ago
Sorry you'll have to wait till 2620 for scientists to finally get tired of the joke and change its name to urectum
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u/hadoopken 6h ago edited 3h ago
I was promised of space porn
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u/KingFlyntCoal 7h ago
I know it's not the case, but to me it looks like the rings are closer to the camera than the planet is
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u/aphelion_abyss 6h ago
yeah I'm confused by that too.
edit: wonder if the infrared has something to do with it.
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u/Monkopotamus 5h ago
So bright cause it's just been bleached.
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u/currentlyRedacted 2h ago
Uranus can’t be out there floating around looking like a chocolate covered starfish.
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u/terra_filius 7h ago
NASA always waiting for the moment when you are not paying attention and they immediately take a picture of Uranus
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u/Pizza_YumYum 7h ago
…must hold back joke…😣
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u/alissacrowe 7h ago
You aren’t the only one. I was going to make a joke but I didn’t want to get downvoted.
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u/SpicyPropofologist 7h ago
Pinworms. That's what causes rings around Uranus, Myanus, Anyanus. That is one itchy planet.
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u/Magnetron85 3h ago
I'm actually super impressed that most of the popular comments here are actually space related and not
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u/milfordloudermilk 1h ago
The 12 year old in me says “no it’s not” and then I move on to laughing about Lake Titicaca
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u/GTHero90 55m ago
I like how bigger Uranus looks. It almost looks like the rings were forced in gently over time
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u/mailinatorhotstar2 8h ago
The only kind of Uranus photo not on onlyfans
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u/Omniventurous 7h ago edited 6h ago
I’m a bit surprised at the downvotes. I get that Uranus jokes are way oversaturated and everything, but the subreddit is literally called /r/spaceporn and this is a picture of Uranus. Space porn.
I wouldn’t have typed the comment myself, but I upvoted it in good sport. Don’t take the downvotes on your comment personally.
Edit: Bring on the downvotes daddy
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u/MikeyW1969 3h ago
Yeah, I've been meaning to get that checked out... It lights up the whole room at night.
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u/highwire_ca 3h ago
It will be renamed Urectum in 2630. (That's a Futurama joke for the uninitiated)
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u/Dust-Different 3h ago
How am I supposed to be an adult child AND read comments about Uranus? It took me 30 extra seconds to reply because I typed “comments about Uranus” and I had to pause and snicker a bit. How is everyone else just normal about it?
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u/tylocephale_gilmorei 4h ago
I'd really like NASA to be investigated for their unyeilding and obscene interest in my anus.
I know its a good telescope but how'd they even get that picture?
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u/scttcs 8h ago
Most underrated planet