NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope and New Horizons spacecraft have joined forces to observe Uranus, a planet known for its mysterious atmosphere. Hubble, from its position in low-Earth orbit, captured detailed images of Uranus‘ atmosphere, including clouds and storms, while New Horizons, located 6.5 billion miles away, observed the planet as a small dot. These combined observations offer astronomers important insights into imaging distant exoplanets around other stars, providing essential context for future missions.
A Unique Perspective on Exoplanet Imaging
Lead author Samantha Hasler from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who works with the New Horizons team, explained that the collaboration between these two spacecrafts serves as a test case for observing distant exoplanets. Hubble’s close-up view of Uranus, in combination with New Horizons’ distant observation, helps researchers learn how gas giants similar to Uranus might appear when observed from light-years away.
Valuable Insights for Future Missions
The observations revealed that Uranus was dimmer than predicted in New Horizons’ data, providing a new understanding of how light is reflected at different angles. This discovery has significant implications for future missions like NASA‘s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope and the Habitable Worlds Observatory, both of which will focus on studying exoplanets. Alan Stern, Principal Investigator for New Horizons at the Southwest Research Institute, highlighted that these findings contribute to understanding distant planetary atmospheres, preparing astronomers for future missions aimed at detecting habitable worlds.