Cassini Spies the Ice-Giant Planet Uranus
May 12, 2014
Source: NASA/JPL
This view from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft features a blue planet, but unlike the view from July 19, 2013, that featured our home planet (PIA17172), this blue orb is Uranus, imaged by Cassini for the first time. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute.
NASA’s Cassini spacecraft has captured its first-ever image of the pale blue ice-giant planet Uranus in the distance beyond Saturn’s rings.
The robotic spacecraft briefly turned its gaze away from the ringed beauty of Saturn on April 11, 2014, to observe the distant planet, which is the seventh planet from the Sun.
A high-resolution version of the image is available at www.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages/details.php?id=PIA17178.
The planets Uranus and Neptune are sometimes referred to as “ice giants” to distinguish them from their larger siblings, Jupiter and Saturn, the classic “gas giants.” The moniker derives from the fact that a comparatively large part of the planets’ composition consists of water, ammonia, and methane, which are typically frozen as ices in the cold depths of the outer solar system. Jupiter and Saturn are made almost entirely of hydrogen and helium, with smaller percentages of these ices.
When this view was obtained, Uranus was nearly on the opposite side of the Sun as seen from Saturn, at a distance of approximately 28.6 astronomical units from Cassini and Saturn. An astronomical unit is the average distance from Earth to the Sun, equal to 93 million miles (150 million kilometers). At their closest, the two planets approach to within about 10 astronomical units of each other.
In addition to its aesthetic appeal, Cassini’s view of Uranus also serves a practical purpose. Scientists working on several of Cassini’s science investigations expect that they will be able to use images and spectra from these observations to help calibrate their own instruments.
For more information about Cassini, visit
Cassini: Unlocking Saturn’s Secrets
Last updated May 12, 2014
