Space Topics: Uranus
Voyager Images of Uranus
Voyager 2 flew by Uranus on January 24, 1986, coming within 81,500 kilometers
(50,600 miles) of the planet's cloud tops. The spacecraft took almost 8,000
images of the planet, its moons and its dark ring system.
This view of Uranus was recorded by Voyager 2 on January
25, l986, as the spacecraft left the planet behind and set forth on the cruise
to Neptune. Voyager was 1 million kilometers (about 600,000 miles) from Uranus
when it acquired this wide-angle view. The picture -- a color composite of
blue, green and orange frames -- has a resolution of 140 kilometers (90 miles)
per pixel.
These two pictures of Uranus -- one in true color (left)
and the other in false color (right) -- were compiled from images returned
January 17, 1986, by the narrow-angle camera of Voyager 2. The spacecraft was
9.1 million kilometers (5.7 million miles) from the planet, several days from
closest approach. The picture at left has been processed to show Uranus as
human eyes would see it from the vantage point of the spacecraft. The picture
at right uses false color and extreme contrast enhancement to bring out subtle
details in the polar region of Uranus.
These time-lapse Voyager 2 images of Uranus show the movement
of two small, bright, streaky clouds, the first such features ever seen on
the planet. The clouds were detected in this series of images taken on January
14, 1986, over a 4.6-hour interval (from top to bottom). At the time, the spacecraft
was about 12.9 million kilometers (8 million miles) from the planet, whose
pole of rotation is near the center of each disk. Uranus, which is tipped on
its side with respect to the other planets, is rotating in a counterclockwise
direction, as are the two clouds seen here.
This false-color Voyager picture of Uranus shows a discrete
cloud seen as a bright streak near the planet's limb. The picture is a highly
processed composite of three images obtained January 14, 1986, when the spacecraft
was 12.9 million kilometers (8 million miles) from the planet. The cloud visible
here is the most prominent feature seen in a series of Voyager images designed
to track atmospheric motions. (The occasional donut- shaped features, including
one at the bottom, are shadows cast by dust in the camera optics.)
As Voyager 2 exited the Uranian system it looked back and
caught the rings at a very high phase angle. Voyager took this image
while in the shadow of Uranus, at a distance of 236,000 kilometers (142,000
miles) and a resolution of about 33 kilometers (20 miles) per pixel. The lighting
makes lanes of fine dust visible that are not seen from any other point of
view. The image is smeared because it is a 96-second exposure. Faint streaks
are background stars.
Voyager 2 approached closer to Miranda than to any other
of Uranus' satellites. In this view the striped terrain of Inverness Corona
juts into lumpy, more cratered terrain. Jagged mountains march off to Miranda's
limb.
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