{"id":232437,"date":"2026-04-16T15:18:42","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T01:18:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=232437"},"modified":"2026-04-16T15:55:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T01:55:10","slug":"uranus-rings-decoded-maunakea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/16\/uranus-rings-decoded-maunakea\/","title":{"rendered":"Uranus rings decoded on Maunakea"},"content":{"rendered":"<span class=\"span-reading-time rt-reading-time\" style=\"display: block;\"><span class=\"rt-label rt-prefix\">Reading time: <\/span> <span class=\"rt-time\"> &lt; 1<\/span> <span class=\"rt-label rt-postfix\">minute<\/span><\/span><figure id=\"attachment_232433\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-232433\" style=\"width: 676px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/system-maunakea-uranus-rings-1.jpg\" alt=\"Uranus\" width=\"676\" height=\"381\" class=\"size-full wp-image-232433\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/system-maunakea-uranus-rings-1.jpg 676w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/system-maunakea-uranus-rings-1-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/system-maunakea-uranus-rings-1-130x73.jpg 130w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 676px) 100vw, 676px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-232433\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Image of planet Uranus. (Credit: <abbr>NASA<\/abbr>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Astronomers using the <a href=\"https:\/\/keckobservatory.org\/\">W. M. Keck Observatory<\/a> have taken a major step in understanding the distant planet Uranus. By combining data from Keck Observatory with the Hubble Space Telescope and James Webb Space Telescope, researchers created the first complete picture of how light reflects off Uranus\u2019s faint outer rings.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_232432\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-232432\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/system-maunakea-uranus-rings-2-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"Uranus\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-232432\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/system-maunakea-uranus-rings-2-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/system-maunakea-uranus-rings-2-130x73.jpg 130w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/system-maunakea-uranus-rings-2.jpg 676w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-232432\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><abbr>JWST<\/abbr> images show Uranus and its faint outer rings. (Credit: <abbr>NASA<\/abbr>, <abbr>ESA<\/abbr>, Image processing: Imke de Pater, Matt Hedman)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The results reveal two very different stories. One ring appears to be made of tiny grains of water ice, likely chipped off a small moon. The other is darker and rocky, mixed with carbon-rich material. Together, they show how collisions and impacts continue to shape the planet\u2019s ring system.<\/p>\n<p>The findings offer new clues about how planets and their moons form and change throughout time.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/keckobservatory.org\/uranus-two-outer-rings\/\">For more go to Keck Observatory\u2019s website<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Research conducted on Keck Observatory on Maunakea created the first complete picture of how light reflects off Uranus\u2019s faint outer rings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":232433,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[34,659,1421,1579,947],"class_list":["post-232437","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research","tag-astronomy","tag-maunakea","tag-maunakea-observatories","tag-research","tag-uh-system","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/system-maunakea-uranus-rings-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232437","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=232437"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232437\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":232446,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232437\/revisions\/232446"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/232433"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=232437"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=232437"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=232437"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}