Uranus System Imaging Options

[machi]

I finished my first good image of Uranus.
Planet is colorized from three filtered images (orange, green, blue).
Slightly brownish color of rings is entirely artificial.

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[Bjorn Jonsson]

WOW!!! To me these may be the planetary images of the year 2012. I feel like I'm looking at a completely new planet. Of the two ice giants it has always been Uranus that seemed to be more different visually from Jupiter/Saturn but now it suddenly seems the opposite may be true. It looks remarkably similar to Saturn. It's not only the north polar region that looks similar to Saturn's south polar region - Saturn has scalloped bands as well.

I never stop wondering what Voyager 2 would have seen had it been able to carry a Galileo/Cassini style imaging system, i.e. a CCD camera with near infrared filters. Uranus is so much more active-looking at infrared wavelength than it is in visible light. This is a great example of the fact that planets that look visually bland are not uninteresting. They are just more difficult to study.

I have said it before and I'm going to repeat it ;-) : I want a Uranus orbiter or flyby mission in my lifetime.