Hubble Telescope takes stunning images of white auroras on Uranus – Express.co.uk

Posted: April 13, 2017 at 11:32 pm

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Images taken from the NASA and European Space Agency (ESA) spacecrafts of Voyager2 and the Hubble Space Telescope show beautiful white auroras hovering over Uranus.

Auroras occur on the chillingly blue seventh planet farthest from the sun in the sam fashion as they do here on Earth.

Auroras here and on Uranus form when atmospheric molecules and energetic particles collide to create light.

A statement from the ESA and NASA adds: They become caught in powerful magnetic fields and are channeled into the upper atmosphere, where their interactions with gas particles, such as oxygen or nitrogen, set off spectacular bursts of light.

ESA/Hubble & NASA, L. Lamy/Observatoire de Paris

However, auroras on Earth typically stick to regions near to the north and south poles.

But as the statement explains: By watching the auroras over time, they collected the first direct evidence that these powerful shimmering regions rotate with the planet.

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Uranus sits about 19 times farther from the Sun that Earth does and is the third larges planet in the solar system behind Saturn and Jupiter.

Auroras were also spotted on Jupiter, aptly named the King of the Solar System due to it being the far biggest planet in our galactic neighbourhood, last year but the auroras there are unique.

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Aurora lights reflect in lagoon, Jokulsarlon, Iceland

On Jupiter the rapid rotating magnetic field collides with energetic particles from both solar winds blasting against the planet at a million miles per hour and particles released from volcanic eruptions on one of its moons, Io.

However, it is unclear how the aurora on Jupiter is affected by solar flares, which Nasa is hoping to shed light on through its historic Juno mission.

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Hubble Telescope takes stunning images of white auroras on Uranus - Express.co.uk

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