![A composite of Hubble images of Uranus and Neptune. Credit: NASA, ESA, Mark Showalter (SETI Institute), Amy Simon (NASA-GSFC), Michael H. Wong (UC Berkeley), Andrew I. Hsu (UC Berkeley)](https://www.spaceflightinsider.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Uranus-and-Neptune.png)
A composite of Hubble images of Uranus and Neptune. Credit: NASA, ESA, Mark Showalter (SETI Institute), Amy Simon (NASA-GSFC), Michael H. Wong (UC Berkeley), Andrew I. Hsu (UC Berkeley)
NASA’s Latest Horizons mission is searching for assistance from amateur astronomers in observations of ice giants Uranus and Neptune, which will likely be conducted in September.
At the identical time the spacecraft looks back on the 2 ice giants, NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope will observe them from Earth using its color camera. Mission scientists hope the three-way observations will make clear the best way heat is transferred from these planets’ rocky cores to their gaseous surfaces.
“By combining the data Latest Horizons collects in space with data from telescopes on Earth, we will complement and even strengthen our models to uncover the mysteries swirling within the atmospheres of Uranus and Neptune. Even from amateur astronomer telescopes as small as 16 inches, these complementary observations could be extremely vital,” said mission principal investigator Alan Stern of the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado.
Latest Horizons is currently deep throughout the Kuiper Belt, greater than 5 billion miles (8 billion kilometers) from Earth. Along with its two flyby targets, Pluto and Arrokoth, and diverse Kuiper Belt Objects at a distance, it has also studied the solar wind, circumsolar dust and the cosmic optical background.
Viewers who participate within the observations of Uranus and Neptune are encouraged to search for and follow brilliant areas on the surfaces of each planets. Ground-based observers have the advantage of having the ability to observe the planets for much longer than either Latest Horizons or Hubble can.
In accordance with the project’s webpage, which provides vital details for ground-based observers, “Observations of Uranus could include measuring the present brightness distribution across the planet, together with the possible presence of discrete clouds. For Neptune, they might include characterizing unusually brilliant features that provide a greater temporal baseline for — and even help interpret — the Latest Horizons and Hubble Space Telescope measurements.”
Observers are asked to post the photographs they capture together with the dates they’re taken and filter passbands used on Facebook and Twitter/X using the hashtag #NHIceGiants. Mission scientists will collect all images and data posted with this hashtag.
Images of Uranus and Neptune captured by Hubble will likely be posted online on the Mikulsky Archive for Space Telescopes (MAST) site at the tip of September. Those taken by Latest Horizons will likely be made public at yr’s end.