Observations of Uranus at High Phase Angle as Seen by New Horizons

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Abstract We present flux measurements of Uranus observed at phase angles of 43.°9, 44.°0, and 52.°4 by the Multispectral Visible Imaging Camera on the New Horizons spacecraft during 2023, 2010, and 2019, respectively. New Horizons imaged Uranus at a distance of about 24–70 au (2023) in four color filters, with bandpasses of 400–550 nm, 540–700 nm, 780–975 nm, and 860–910 nm. High-phase-angle observations are of interest for studying the energy balance of Uranus, constraining the atmospheric scattering behavior, and understanding the planet as an analog for ice giant exoplanets. The new observations from New Horizons provide access to a wider wavelength range and different season compared with previous observations from the Voyager spacecraft. We performed aperture photometry on the New Horizons observations of Uranus to obtain its brightness in each photometric band. The photometry suggests that Uranus may be darker than predicted by a Lambertian phase curve in the blue and red filters. Comparison to simultaneous low-phase Hubble WFC3 and ground-based community-led observations indicates a lack of large-scale features at full phase that would introduce variation in the rotational light curve. The New Horizons reflectance in the blue (492 nm) and red (624 nm) filters does not exhibit statistically significant variation and is consistent with the expected error bars. These results place new constraints on the atmospheric model of Uranus and its reflectivity. The observations are analogous to those from future exoplanet direct-imaging missions, which will capture unresolved images of exoplanets at partial phases. These results will serve as a “ground truth” with which to interpret exo-ice-giant data.

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