Auroras on Uranus dazzle in new Hubble Telescope views

Bright auroras are clearly visible in this composite photo of Uranus, which combines two different observations made by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope (one each for the planet’s rings and auroras) and one image by the agency’s Voyager 2 probe, which flew by Uranus in 1986. (Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, L. Lamy/Observatoire de Paris)

Uranus is not just a featureless ball of bluish-green gas.

Bright auroras light up the planet's atmosphere in two newly released photos, which combine observations by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope and the agency's Voyager 2 probe. (Voyager 2 flew by Uranus in 1986 as part of a "grand tour" of the solar system's outer planets that the spacecraft performed with its twin, Voyager 1.)

Uranus' auroras are driven by the same basic processes that cause auroras here on Earth, which are also known as the northern and southern lights.

"Auroras are caused by streams of charged particles like electrons that come from various origins such as solar winds, the planetary ionosphere and moon volcanism," NASA and European Space Agency (ESA) officials wrote in an image description today (April 10). (Hubble is a joint NASA/ESA mission.)