{"id":375271,"date":"2026-02-25T01:00:39","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T15:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?guid=b98592ecf46b72b56d2447b01030da93"},"modified":"2026-02-25T01:00:39","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T15:00:39","slug":"webb-maps-uranus-upper-atmosphere","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=375271","title":{"rendered":"Webb Maps Uranus\u2019 Upper Atmosphere"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n
\n
\"This<\/a><\/figure>
\n
ESA\/Webb, NASA, CSA, STScI, P. Tiranti, H. Melin, M. Zamani (ESA\/Webb)<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

NASA\u2019s James Webb Space Telescope provided the first vertical view of Uranus\u2019s ionosphere in this image released on Feb. 19, 2026, revealing auroras shaped by its tilted magnetic field.<\/p>\n

Getting a look at the structure of the region where the atmosphere interacts strongly with the planet\u2019s magnetic field is giving us the most detailed portrait yet of where its auroras form, how the magnetic field influences them, and also data on how Uranus\u2019s atmosphere has continued to cool since the 1990s.<\/p>\n

Uranus has the strangest magnetosphere in the Solar System. It is tilted and offset from the planet\u2019s rotation axis (and this planet already rolls around the Sun nearly on its side), which means auroras move across the surface in complex ways. Better understanding Uranus will give us insight into ice-giant planets and help us better characterize giant planets outside our Solar System.<\/p>\n

Read more about this image.<\/a><\/p>\n

Image credit: ESA\/Webb, NASA, CSA, STScI, P. Tiranti, H. Melin, M. Zamani (ESA\/Webb)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NASA\u2019s James Webb Space Telescope provided the first vertical view of Uranus\u2019s ionosphere in this image released on Feb. 19, 2026, revealing auroras shaped by its tilted magnetic field. Getting a look at the structure of the region where the atmosphere interacts strongly with the planet\u2019s magnetic field is giving us the most detailed portrait [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15637],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-375271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-james-webb-space-telescope-jwst"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375271","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=375271"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375271\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":376090,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375271\/revisions\/376090"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=375271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=375271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=375271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}