JWST/HST images of Uranus and Neptune Options

[titanicrivers]

^^ Did this article have a Concept mission for Uranus/Neptune ?

Kinda. The last paragraph of the article entitled "Return to the Ice Giants" suggested Uranus and Neptune and their moons provide "rich targets" for future orbiting spacecraft. Launch opportunities for Uranus and Neptune occur "around 2030, leading to encounters around 2040". Uranus in particular "presents a timely opportunity" in that by 2050 a spacecraft still in orbit can view portions of Uranus and its moons not seen during the Voyager flyby.

[titanicrivers]

An article speculating on the JWST observations concerning Uranus and Neptune. https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2020/e...-webb-telescope

[titanicrivers]

A summary presentation concerning the 2014-2019 Hubble OPAL observations concerning Uranus and Neptune may be found here. https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/288485751.pdf
Polar haze brightening and small storms continue on Uranus and observations of the occurrence and evolution of dark vortices on Neptune are highlighted. A six year orbital mission of Neptune is suggested for up close observations of a dark vortex.
The authors propose continued Hubble observations of Uranus and Neptune in 2020. https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2020hst.....16266S/abstract

[antipode]

Ooh, nice!

Thanks for that.

P

ps Bring on the ELTs and advanced AO!

[titanicrivers]

An article in Physics World published on Dec. 8th https://physicsworld.com/a/things-we-dont-k...us-and-neptune/ summarizes a presentation by Dr. Heidi Hammel at the RAL Space 16th Appleton Space conference https://www.ralspace.stfc.ac.uk/Pages/16th-...Conference.aspx , concerning past, present and future studies of the Ice Giants and their moons.

[titanicrivers]

Wow, a Hubble-Neptune Dark Spot update! A Dark Spot discovered in 2018 has reversed a latitudinal migration and possibly fragmented. The report appears here: https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2020/d...ding-a-fragment. The article mentions "Hubble snapped many of the images of the dark spots as part of the Outer Planet Atmospheres Legacy (OPAL) program, a long-term Hubble project, led by Amy Simon of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, that annually captures global maps of our solar system's outer planets when they are closest to Earth in their orbits."

[titanicrivers]

Some lite reading in the NY times on the recent Neptune dark spot! https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/22/science/...-dark-spot.html

[titanicrivers]

Some updated information on the OPAL web site here: https://archive.stsci.edu/prepds/opal/

[titanicrivers]

Seems I cannot contribute a significant post from the NASA OUTER PLANETS ASSESSMENT GROUP (OPAG) in the already existing UMSF topic and so I post it here, https://www.lpi.usra.edu/opag/meetings/aug2...-Aug-Agenda.pdf as part of the meeting’s agenda pertains to HST imaging of Uranus and Neptune. My apologies if this appears elsewhere.

[titanicrivers]

Wow! Hadn't seen this Hubble video of Neptune before. https://hubblesite.org/contents/media/video...0/59/1299-Video

[TrappistPlanets]

nice!
only if hubble looked at neptune for longer, we could have seen how the 2 spots get along without smashing

[titanicrivers]

A NASA post from yesterday https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2021/h...er-solar-system, provides some beautiful images, a nice video and interesting commentary concerning HST's most recent OPAL survey of the outer planets. See also the Hubble site post here: https://hubblesite.org/contents/news-releas...1/news-2021-047

[TrappistPlanets]

A NASA post from yesterday https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2021/h...er-solar-system, provides some beautiful images, a nice video and interesting commentary concerning HST's most recent OPAL survey of the outer planets. See also the Hubble site post here: https://hubblesite.org/contents/news-releas...1/news-2021-047

https://hubblesite.org/contents/media/video...DM0PS?news=true

whoa.....where did neptune's 2nd dark spot hubble saw in 2020 go?


--EDIT--

very crude map of jupiter 2021 from hubble
(i used a higher resolution image i was able to find for the area that is containing the great red spot)

[TrappistPlanets]

Jupiter 2021 maps: https://archive.stsci.edu/missions/hlsp/opa...ycle28/jupiter/
Saturn 2021 maps: https://archive.stsci.edu/missions/hlsp/opal/cycle28/saturn/
Uranus 2021 maps: https://archive.stsci.edu/missions/hlsp/opal/cycle28/uranus/
Neptune 2021maps: https://archive.stsci.edu/missions/hlsp/opa...ycle28/neptune/
you can also find the same maps here
https://archive.stsci.edu/prepds/opal/

[titanicrivers]

For myself, the appearance of Uranus is most amazing! The description of the HST imaging details of this planet https://hubblesite.org/contents/media/image...s&news=true combined with this link to the filters WFC3 uses to make composite images https://hst-docs.stsci.edu/wfc3ihb/appendix...ter-throughputs solidifies the comments made by JRehling about the appearance of Uranus earlier in this topic.