Uranus News

September 9, 2016

Amazing Compounds Inside Uranus and Neptune?

Planet Nine May Spell Doom for Solar System

Jupiter Bumped Giant Planet from Solar System

Super-Earths, Giant Planets Recreated in Lab

Latest Headlines

updated 12:42am EDT

35 Years On, Voyager's Legacy Continues at Saturn

Aug. 24, 2016 — Saturn, with its alluring rings and numerous moons, has long fascinated stargazers and scientists. After an initial flyby of Pioneer 11 in 1979, humanity got a second, much ... read more

Is Salt the Key to Unlocking the Interiors of Neptune and Uranus?

June 22, 2015 — The interiors of several of our Solar System's planets and moons are icy, and ice has been found on distant extrasolar planets, as well. This ice must exist under extreme ... read more

NASA Voyager: 'Tsunami Wave' Still Flies Through Interstellar Space

Dec. 15, 2014 — The Voyager 1 spacecraft has experienced three shock waves. The most recent shock wave, first observed in February 2014, still appears to be going on. One wave, previously ... read more

Amateur, Professional Astronomers Alike Thrilled by Extreme Storms on Uranus

Nov. 12, 2014 — The normally bland face of Uranus has become increasingly stormy, with enormous cloud systems so bright that for the first ... read more

Astronomers Spot Faraway Uranus-Like Planet: First 'Ice Giant' Planet Found in Another Solar System

Oct. 15, 2014 — Our view of other solar systems just got a little more familiar, with the discovery of a planet 25,000 light-years away that resembles our own ... read more

The Origin of Uranus and Neptune Elucidated

Sep. 23, 2014 — Astronomers have just proposed a solution to the problematic chemical composition of Uranus and Neptune, thus providing clues for understanding their formation. The ... read more

Miranda: An Icy Moon Deformed by Tidal Heating

Sep. 18, 2014 — Miranda, a small, icy moon of Uranus, is one of the most visually striking and enigmatic bodies in the solar system. Despite its relatively small size, Miranda appears to ... read more

Transiting Exoplanet With Longest Known Year: 704 Earth Days

July 21, 2014 — Astronomers have discovered a transiting exoplanet with the longest known year. Kepler-421b circles its star once every 704 days. In comparison, Mars orbits our Sun once ... read more

Astronomers Solve Temperature Mystery of Planetary Atmospheres

Dec. 10, 2013 — An atmospheric peculiarity the Earth shares with Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune is likely common to billions of planets, astronomers have found, and knowing that may ... read more

Probing Methane's Secrets: From Diamonds to Neptune

Sep. 12, 2013 — Hydrocarbons from the Earth make up the oil and gas that heat our homes and fuel our cars. The study of the various phases of molecules formed from carbon and hydrogen under ... read more

NASA Video Shows Jupiter and Its Moons

RAW VIDEO: NASA's Voyager First Spacecraft to Exit Solar System

Voyager 1 About to Leave Solar System

Voyager I Enters "Magnetic Highway"

New Observing Capabilities for ALMA

Sep. 10, 2014 — The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) has reached a major milestone by extending its vision fully into the realm of the submillimeter, the wavelengths of cosmic light that hold ... read more

Cassini Spies the Ice-Giant Planet Uranus Beyond Saturn's Rings

May 2, 2014 — NASA's Cassini spacecraft has captured its first-ever image of the pale blue ice-giant planet Uranus in the distance beyond Saturn's ... read more

'Trojan' Asteroids in Far Reaches of Solar System More Common Than Previously Thought

Aug. 29, 2013 — Astronomers have discovered the first Trojan asteroid sharing the orbit of Uranus, and believe 2011 QF99 is part of a larger-than-expected population of transient objects temporarily trapped by the ... read more

Three Centaurs Follow Uranus Through the Solar System

June 18, 2013 — Astrophysicists have confirmed that Crantor, a large asteroid with a diameter of 70 km has an orbit similar to that of Uranus and takes the same amount of time to orbit the Sun. Researchers have ... read more

Weather on the Outer Planets Only Goes So Deep

May 16, 2013 — What is the long-range weather forecast for the giant planets Uranus and Neptune? These planets are home to extreme winds blowing at speeds of over 1000 km/hour, hurricane-like storms as large around ... read more

Planet Rings Could Be Behind the Formation of Solar System Satellites

Dec. 4, 2012 — Two researchers have recently proposed the first ever model explaining how the great majority of regular satellites in our solar system were formed out of planet rings. The model, the only one of its ... read more

Giant Impact Scenario May Explain the Unusual Moons of Saturn

Oct. 17, 2012 — Among the oddities of the outer solar system are the middle-sized moons of Saturn, a half-dozen icy bodies dwarfed by Saturn's massive moon Titan. According to a new model for the origin of the ... read more

Keck Observations Bring Weather of Uranus Into Sharp Focus

Oct. 17, 2012 — In 1986, when Voyager swept past Uranus, the probe’s portraits of the planet were “notoriously bland,” disappointing scientists, yielding few new details of the planet and its atmosphere, and ... read more

Voyager at 35: Break on Through to the Other Side

Aug. 20, 2012 — Thirty-five years ago Aug. 20, NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft, the first Voyager spacecraft to launch, departed on a journey that would make it the only spacecraft to visit Uranus and Neptune and ... read more

Uranus Auroras Glimpsed from Earth

Apr. 13, 2012 — For the first time, scientists have captured images of auroras above the giant ice planet Uranus, finding further evidence of just how peculiar a world that distant planet is. Detected by means of ... read more

As Voyager 1 Nears Edge of Solar System, Scientists Look Back

Dec. 13, 2011 — In 1977, Jimmy Carter was sworn in as president, Elvis died, Virginia park ranger Roy Sullivan was hit by lightning a record seventh time and two NASA space probes destined to turn planetary science ... read more

Giant Planet Ejected from the Solar System?

Nov. 10, 2011 — Just as an expert chess player sacrifices a piece to protect the queen, the solar system may have given up a giant planet and spared the Earth, according to a new ... read more

Series of Bumps Sent Uranus Into Its Sideways Spin, New Research Suggests

Oct. 6, 2011 — Uranus' highly tilted axis makes it something of an oddball in our solar system. The accepted wisdom is that Uranus was knocked on its side by a single large impact, but new research rewrites ... read more

'Invisible' World Discovered: Planet Alternately Runs Late and Early in Its Orbit, Tugged by Second Hidden World

Sep. 8, 2011 — Usually, running five minutes late is a bad thing since you might lose your dinner reservation or miss out on tickets to the latest show. But when a planet runs five minutes late, astronomers get ... read more

Hubble's Neptune Anniversary Pictures

July 12, 2011 — Today, Neptune has arrived at the same location in space where it was discovered nearly 165 years ago. To commemorate the event, NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has taken these "anniversary ... read more

Clocking Neptune's Spin by Tracking Atmospheric Features

June 30, 2011 — By tracking atmospheric features on Neptune, a planetary scientist has accurately determined the planet's rotation, a feat that had not been previously achieved for any of the gas planets in our ... read more

When Jupiter Was in the Position of Mars

June 15, 2011 — A new scenario describing a key step in the formation of the solar system has been proposed by a French-American collaboration. According to this model, Jupiter migrated towards the Sun to the ... read more

Voyager Probes Set to Enter Interstellar Space

Apr. 28, 2011 — More than 30 years after they left Earth, NASA's twin Voyager probes are now at the edge of the solar system. Not only that, they're still working. And with each passing day they are ... read more

Engineers Diagnosing Voyager 2 Data System

May 7, 2010 — Engineers have shifted NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft into a mode that transmits only spacecraft health and status data while they diagnose an unexpected change in the pattern of returning data. ... read more