Webb 望远镜揭示了天王星冷却的上层大气层和由不寻常磁场形成的极光。 Webb Telescope reveals Uranus’s cooling upper atmosphere and auroras shaped by its unusual magnetic field.

詹姆斯·韦伯(James Webb)空间望远镜捕捉了天王星上层大气的最初三维视图,揭示了两个光亮的极光波段,这些波段被一个由行星高度倾斜和抵消磁场形成的暗差隔开。 The James Webb Space Telescope captured the first three-dimensional view of Uranus’s upper atmosphere, revealing two bright auroral bands separated by a dark gap, shaped by the planet’s highly tilted and offset magnetic field. 2025年1月的观测显示,大气层正在冷却,温度比以前估计的低约150摄氏度,尽管天王星的内部热量比太阳的热量要多。 Observations from January 2025 showed the atmosphere is cooling, with temperatures about 150°C lower than previous estimates, despite Uranus emitting more internal heat than it receives from the Sun. 这些数据来自Webb的近红外线谱谱仪,测量离子密度和温度最高达云顶5 000公里,证实了长达数十年的冷却趋势,并对冰巨人的能源动态提供了新的洞察力。 The data, from Webb’s Near-Infrared Spectrograph, measured ion density and temperature up to 5,000 kilometers above cloud tops, confirming a decades-long cooling trend and offering new insights into energy dynamics in ice giants.