Ever seen Aurora Borealis or Aurora Australis here on Earth, also known as the "dawn of the north" and "dawn of the south?" This natural phenomenon appears as incredible bursts of light that illuminate the night sky in myriad hues.
This is due to the high-energy particles being bombarded by the sun and produced by other sources that collide with the gas particles present in the upper atmosphere. These collisions result in bursts of colorful light.
Nobody could have imagined that the same phenomenon could be witnessed on the icy planet, Uranus. According to Sci News, it is the Hubble Space Telescope, the old reliable eye-in-the-sky, that has made this possible.
The images so taken, seen in combination with those from Voyager 2, as reported by Silicone Republic, have revealed one of the most intense auroras on the seventh planet, Uranus. Although, detailed studies have been conducted on the auroras seen on Jupiter and Saturn, the ones on Uranus have come as a big surprise due to their intensity.
The auroras on Uranus appear as bright spots on the surface and present an awesome cosmic light show. These bursts of light have been observed to rotate with the planet.
The reason for the appearance of the auroras is not only the high-energy particles from the solar wind but also the particles emanating from the planetary ionosphere and moon volcanism. These particles get caught in the planet's magnetic field and are thrown upwards into the upper atmosphere of the planet, where they interact with gas particles to produce bursts of light.
Hubble sighting is not a new one, it first had a glimpse of the auroras in 2011. The auroras were sighted again in 2012 and 2014 from the Paris Observatory that used Hubble's Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph for the same.
The latest imaging is special in that the scientists tracked the interplanetary shocks created by intense dual bursts of solar wind and used Hubble to spot these auroras. Such intense auroras were seen for the first time ever.
The images that were taken by Hubble also showed a wisp of a ring around Uranus. This may become the subject of intense research, along with that of the auroras.
