Uranus (November 2022)

As seen in 2022, Uranus’s north pole shows a thickened photochemical haze that looks similar to the smog over cities. Several little storms can be seen near the edge of the polar haze boundary. Hubble has been tracking the size and brightness of the north polar cap and it continues to get brighter year after year. Astronomers are disentangling multiple effects — from atmospheric circulation, particle properties, and chemical processes — that control how the atmospheric polar cap changes with the seasons. At the Uranian equinox in 2007, neither pole was particularly bright. As the northern summer solstice approaches in 2028 the cap may grow brighter still, and will be aimed directly toward Earth, allowing good views of the rings and the north pole; the ring system will then appear face-on. This image was taken on 10 November 2022.

[Image description: Uranus appears tipped on its side. Set against a black background, the planet is mainly colored cyan. It looks like a flat circle outlined with a pinkish gray limb. A faint, pink ring encircles the planet nearly vertically. The faint ring appears to be almost face on. A large area of white coves much of the right side of the planet.]