NASA’s Hubble and New Horizons join forces to observe Uranus

NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope and the New Horizons spacecraft have joined forces to observe Uranus, a planet known for its mysterious atmosphere. From its position in low Earth orbit, Hubble captured detailed images of Uranus’ atmosphere, including clouds and storms, while New Horizons, 6.5 billion miles away, observed the planet as a tiny speck. These combined observations provide astronomers with important insights into imaging distant exoplanets around other stars, providing essential context for future missions.

A unique perspective on exoplanet imaging

Lead author Samantha Hasler of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who works with the New Horizons team, explained that the collaboration between these two spacecraft serves as a test case for observing distant exoplanets. Hubble’s close-up view of Uranus, combined with New Horizons’ distant observation, helps researchers understand how gas giants similar to Uranus can appear when observed from light-years away.

Valuable insights for future missions

The observations showed that Uranus was fainter than predicted in the New Horizons data, providing new insight into how light is reflected at different angles. This discovery has significant implications for future missions such as NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope and the Habitable Worlds Observatory, both of which will focus on studying exoplanets. Alan Stern, principal investigator for New Horizons at the Southwest Research Institute, marked that these findings contribute to the understanding of distant planetary atmospheres, and prepare astronomers for future missions aimed at detecting habitable worlds.