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Uranus Wide (NIRCam Image)

An image with a black background. The planet Uranus is a glowing orb near the center surrounded by rings. The planet appears blue with a large, white patch taking up the right half. The patch is whitest at the center, then fades into blue at it expands from right to left. A thin outline of Uranus is also white. Around the planet is a system of nested rings. There are faint orange and off-white smudges, some oval, some circular, that are background galaxies scattered throughout the image. Several bright blue point sources closer to Uranus are the planet’s moons. There is also a bright star at the left of the field, with 8 diffraction spikes.

This image of Uranus from NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) on NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope shows the planet and its rings in new clarity. The planet’s seasonal north polar cap gleams in a bright white, and Webb’s exquisite sensitivity resolves Uranus’ dim inner and outer rings, including the Zeta ring—the extremely faint and diffuse ring closest to the planet.

This Webb image also shows 14 of the planet’s 27 moons: Oberon, Titania, Umbriel, Juliet, Perdita, Rosalind, Puck, Belinda, Desdemona, Cressida, Ariel, Miranda, Bianca, and Portia.

One day on Uranus is about 17 hours, so the planet’s rotation is relatively quick. This makes it supremely difficult for observatories with a sharp eye like Webb to capture one simple image of the entire planet – storms and other atmospheric features, and the planet’s moons, move visibly within minutes. This image combines several longer and shorter exposures of this dynamic system to correct for those slight changes throughout the observing time.

Webb’s extreme sensitivity also picks up a smattering of background galaxies—most appear as orange smudges, and there are two larger, fuzzy white galaxies to the right of the planet in this field of view.

About the Data

  • Data Description
    Data DescriptionProposal: A description of the observations, their scientific justification, and the links to the data available in the science archive.
    Science Team: The astronomers who planned the observations and analyzed the data. "PI" refers to the Principal Investigator.

    This image was created from JWST data from proposal: 2739 (K. Pontoppidan)

    Image Processing: Alyssa Pagan, Macarena Garcia Marin (STScI)

  • Instrument
    InstrumentThe science instrument used to produce the data.
    NIRCam
  • Exposure Dates
    Exposure DatesThe date(s) that the telescope made its observations and the total exposure time.
    04 September 2023
  • Filters
    FiltersThe camera filters that were used in the science observations.
    F140M, F210M, F300M, F460M
  • Object Name
    Object NameA name or catalog number that astronomers use to identify an astronomical object.
    Uranus
  • Object Description
    Object DescriptionThe type of astronomical object.
    Planet
  • Release Date
    December 18, 2023
  • Science Release
    NASA’s Webb Rings in Holidays with Ringed Planet Uranus
    Read the release
  • Credit
    Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI

Downloads

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  • 2000 × 1691
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An image with a black background. The planet Uranus is a glowing orb near the center surrounded by rings. The planet appears blue with a large, white patch taking up the right half. The patch is whitest at the center, then fades into blue at it expands from right to left. A thin outline of Uranus is also white. Around the planet is a system of nested rings. There are faint orange and off-white smudges, some oval, some circular, that are background galaxies scattered throughout the image. Several bright blue point sources closer to Uranus are the planet’s moons. There is also a bright star at the left of the field, with 8 diffraction spikes.
Color Info
Color InfoA brief description of the methods used to convert telescope data into the color image being presented.

These images are a composite of separate exposures acquired by the James Webb Space Telescope using the NIRCam instrument. Several filters were used to sample medium wavelength ranges. The color results from assigning different hues (colors) to each monochromatic (grayscale) image associated with an individual filter. In this case, the assigned colors are:   Blue: F140M, Cyan: F210M, Yellow: F300M, Orange: F460M

Related Images & Videos

The planet Uranus on a black background. The planet appears blue with a large, white patch taking up the right half. The patch is whitest at the center, then fades into blue at it expands from right to left. A thin outline of Uranus is also white. Around the planet is a system of nested rings. The outermost ring is the brightest while the innermost ring is the faintest. Unlike Saturn’s horizontal rings, the rings of Uranus are vertical and so they appear to surround the planet in an oval shape. There are 9 blueish white dots scattered around the rings.

Uranus Close-up (NIRCam Image)

This image of Uranus from NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) on NASA's James Webb Space Telescope shows the planet and its rings in new clarity. The Webb image exquisitely captures Uranus’s seasonal north polar cap, including the bright, white, inner cap and the dark lane in the...

An image titled James Webb Space Telescope, Uranus, September 4, 2023. An image with a black background, a glowing orb near the center surrounded by rings. There are smudges that are background galaxies scattered throughout the image and several bright blue point sources that are the planet’s moons. At the bottom left are compass arrows indicating the orientation of the image on the sky. The north arrow points in the 12 o’clock direction. The east arrow points toward 6 o’clock. Below the image is a color key showing which filters were used to create the image and which visible-light color is assigned to each infrared-light filter. From left to right, Webb NIRCam filters are F140M (blue), F210M (cyan), F300M (yellow), and F460M (orange). A scale bar at the lower right of the image is about one-seventh the total width of the image, and text below it reads 16 arcseconds.

Uranus Wide (NIRCam Compass Image)

This image of Uranus, captured by Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam), shows compass arrows, scale bar, and color key for reference. The north and east compass arrows show the orientation of the image on the sky. Note that the relationship between north and east on the sky (as...

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Details

Last Updated
Aug 28, 2025
Contact
Media

Laura Betz
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
Greenbelt, Maryland
laura.e.betz@nasa.gov

Image Credit

NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI

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