Skip to main content

Astronomers spot cyclones at Uranus’ pole for the first time

Even at almost 2 billion miles away from the sun, Uranus is still affected by changing seasons and weather just like Earth. On Uranus, though, each season is an epic 21 years long because of its distance from the sun. That makes it an intriguing place to study weather conditions, and recent research by NASA has observed a polar cyclone there.

As the planet is tipped over on its side, its poles aren’t always facing in the right direction to be seen from Earth. But since 2015, astronomers have been able to observe the poles, and to peer into the atmosphere to see what is happening there.

NASA scientists used microwave observations to spot the first polar cyclone on Uranus, seen here as a light-colored dot to the right of center in each image of the planet. The images use wavelength bands K, Ka, and Q, from left. To highlight cyclone features, a different color map was used for each.
NASA scientists used microwave observations to spot the first polar cyclone on Uranus, seen here as a light-colored dot to the right of center in each image of the planet. From left, the images use wavelength bands K, Ka, and Q. To highlight cyclone features, a different color map was used for each. NASA/JPL-Caltech/VLA

While Uranus is usually portrayed as a generally featureless blue ball, when seen using radio telescopes, the pole reveals a swirling cyclone. “These observations tell us a lot more about the story of Uranus. It’s a much more dynamic world than you might think,” said lead author Alex Akins of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in a statement. “It isn’t just a plain blue ball of gas. There’s a lot happening under the hood.”

To study the planet, the researchers used the Very Large Array, which is a group of ground-based dishes that work together to act like one large telescope. Using observations from 2015, 2021, and 2022, the researchers were able to see how the atmosphere changed over time. The cyclone occurs due to the movement of warm gas through the atmosphere, which can start to rotate and form a swirl that moves in the same direction as the rotation of the planet.

Researchers saw spinning of the methane clouds at Uranus’ southern pole after the Voyager 2 mission passed by there in the 1980s. But they aren’t sure whether the newly observed cyclone with its core of warm air is the same phenomenon.

“Does the warm core we observed represent the same high-speed circulation seen by Voyager?” Akins asked. “Or are there stacked cyclones in Uranus’ atmosphere? The fact that we’re still finding out such simple things about how Uranus’ atmosphere works really gets me excited to find out more about this mysterious planet.”

Editors' Recommendations

Georgina Torbet
Georgina is the Digital Trends space writer, covering human space exploration, planetary science, and cosmology. She…
Astronomers watch a preview of the destruction of the Earth
Astronomers using the Gemini South telescope in Chile, operated by NSF’s NOIRLab, have observed the first compelling evidence of a dying Sun-like star engulfing an exoplanet. The “smoking gun” of this event was seen in a long and low-energy outburst from the star — the telltale signature of a planet skimming along a star’s surface. This never-before-seen process may herald the ultimate fate of Earth when our own Sun nears the end of its life in about five billion years.

Astronomers recently caught the grisly sight of an exoplanet being devoured by its star, in a preview of what will eventually happen to the Earth. The sun-like star is located within our galaxy, around 12,000 light-years away, and has puffed up into an end-of-life state called a red giant. As it grows, it expands outward, which is how it was able to swallow the Jupiter-sized planet that had been in orbit around it.

The researchers were able to spot the event because of the distinctive brightening pattern of the star, which is similar to what we can expect will eventually happen to our sun. “We are seeing the future of the Earth,” said lead author of the research, Kishalay De of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), in a statement. “If some other civilization was observing us from 10,000 light-years away while the sun was engulfing the Earth, they would see the sun suddenly brighten as it ejects some material, then form dust around it, before settling back to what it was.”

Read more
Supermassive black hole spews out jet of matter in first-of-its-kind image
Scientists observing the compact radio core of M87 have discovered new details about the galaxy’s supermassive black hole. In this artist’s conception, the black hole’s massive jet is seen rising up from the centre of the black hole. The observations on which this illustration is based represent the first time that the jet and the black hole shadow have been imaged together, giving scientists new insights into how black holes can launch these powerful jets.

As well as pulling in anything which comes to close to them, black holes can occasionally expel matter at very high speeds. When clouds of dust and gas approach the event horizon of a black hole, some of it will fall inward, but some can be redirected outward in highly energetic bursts, resulting in dramatic jets of matter that shoot out at speeds approaching the speed of light. The jets can spread for thousands of light-years, with one jet emerging from each of the black hole's poles in a phenomenon thought to be related to the black hole's spin.

Scientists observing the compact radio core of M87 have discovered new details about the galaxy’s supermassive black hole. In this artist’s conception, the black hole’s massive jet of matter is seen rising up from the center of the black hole. The observations on which this illustration is based represent the first time that the jet and the black hole shadow have been imaged together, giving scientists new insights into how black holes can launch these powerful jets. S. Dagnello (NRAO/AUI/NSF)

Read more
SpaceX Starship rocket launches in first test flight, but explodes in midair
spacex starship launch explosion

SpaceX has launched its integrated Starship for the first time, with the spacecraft and rocket leaving the launchpad on a test flight. However, not everything went smoothly during the test, as the rocket exploded before the separation of the Starship spacecraft from the Super Heavy rocket booster.

The launch from SpaceX's Starbase facility at Boca Chica in Texas saw the Starship leave the launch pad at 9:33 a.m. ET, consisting of the integrated Starship spacecraft and the Super Heavy Booster, which form the world's most powerful rocket. The combined Starship will be used for future missions to the moon and beyond, launched from a launch-and-catch tower standing at an impressive height of nearly 500 feet tall.

Read more