NASA's James Webb surprisingly captures 11 rings and a mysterious polar cap on Uranus

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope revealed a side of Uranus rarely seen before. Captured February 6, 2023, the infrared image showed 11 of the planet's 13 known rings — a stark contrast to Voyager 2's 1986 flyby, which showed little more than a featureless blue-green ball in visible light. Webb's sharper view also picked up a bright polar cap forming at the pole facing the Sun, a seasonal feature that appears each summer and disappears by fall for reasons scientists still can't fully explain. The pattern ties back to Uranus's unusual tilt: the planet spins almost entirely on its side, giving each pole roughly four decades of nonstop sunlight followed by four decades of darkness over its 84-year orbit. Six of the planet's 27 known moons also turned up in the same frame. Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI; Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI)