From the River Ridge Observatory last night I was able to see the planet Uranus, which is now in the constellation of Pices. The ice giants atmopshere contains methan, which is very good at absorbing the red portions of the suns light while sending the bluer portions back to our eyes. Of course any backyard telescope is not going to show Uranus as a large disc, it will always be a tiny, turquoise dot. There is still a lot we do not know about Uranus, such as why it rotates upon its side, what its interior is like, what the full composition of elements are in its atmopshere, details about its moon system and rings, etc. The European Space Agency has been mulling over a proposed Uranus Pathfinder probe mission to go forth and find out more about this icy, blue wonder of our solar system.
Posted on: Thu, 30 Oct 2014 14:31:06 +0000
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