Philips Atlas of the Universe

THE SOLAR SYSTEM

THE RINGS OF URANUS

Distance from

Ring Uranus, km Width, km

6 41,800 1–3

5 42,200 2–3

4 42,600 2

(Alpha) 44,700 4–11

(Beta) 45,700 7–11

(Eta) 47,200 2

(Gamma) 47,600 1–4

(Delta) 48,300 3–9

(Lambda) 50,000 1–2

(Epsilon) 51,150 20–96

The broad sheet of material closer-in than Ring 6,

extending from 39,500 km to 23,000 km from Uranus,

is sometimes regarded as a ring.

 A true-colour photograph

on 17 January 1986 by the

narrow-angle camera of

Voyager 2, 9.1 million km

(5.7 million miles) from the

planet, seven days before

closest approach. The

blue-green colour is due

to absorption of red light by

methane gas in Uranus’

deep, cold and remarkably

clear atmosphere.

 Bright clouds on Uranus.

This false-colour image

was generated by Erich

Karkoschka using data

taken on 8 August 1998

with Hubble’s Near Infrared

Camera and Multi-Object

Spectrometer. The orange

clouds near the prominent

bright band move at over

500 km/h (300 mph). Colours

indicate altitude; green

and blue show that the

atmosphere is clear, so that

sunlight can penetrate the

atmosphere deeply. In

yellow and grey regions

the sunlight reflects from a

higher haze or cloud layer.

Orange and red colours

indicate high clouds.

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