Astronomers Snap Uranus Dancing With the Moons in Epic Video [WATCH]

Recently, the University of Hertfordshire Bayfordbury Observatory captured an epic video of Uranus dancing with its moons. There are currently 27 known Uranus moons, and five of these were seen in the video!

Most space research focus on nearby planets like Mars and Venus. Occasionally, space fans also investigate the gigantic Jupiter and Saturn. However, the celestial phenomenon that shocked the world this month is the seventh planet from the Sun, Uranus, named after the Greek god of the sky.

Uranus Planet Opposition

A week back, the University of Hertfordshire Bayfordbury Observatory captured Uranus during opposition. Opposition is an astronomical term for a planet on the opposite side of the Sun, with Earth in the middle. This makes the elusive and distant ice giant visible on Earth's sky.

The team tracked the planet for four hours and eventually recorded it via video. They tweeted the clip on their social media page, which featured Uranus with its four brightest moons: Titania, Oberon, Umbriel, and Ariel.

Uranus Moons Dancing on the Night Sky: Video Clips

The research team released two other video clips based on the first recording. These other posts explained the easy-to-miss details of the exciting scene.

In one tweet, the team reduced the video clip speed and locked on Uranus as the center of the frame. They immediately noticed that "Uranus is unique amongst the planets in that its moons orbit, along with its own rotation, are almost at 90 degrees to the orbit around the sun."

A third tweet processed the initial video, and its renders revealed the fifth largest Uranus moon, Miranda. For fans who have a hard time seeing the moon in this GIF, concentrate on the black space where the caption is pointing. In the middle of that dark section is an incredibly faint ball of light, which is the moon.

As seen in all clips, the exciting video captured the planet Uranus with its moons orbiting around it. According to Cnet, the moon-naming scheme was taken from characters of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" by William Shakespeare. There is also a moon named Puck, but it is too small to see on any of the videos.

NASA Asteroid Warning Issued

On a separate topic, space fans should also be aware about the NASA asteroid warning issued earlier this week. Space researchers are observing the 4660 Nereus, an asteroid with the same height as the Eiffel Tower!

The asteroid will pass by Earth on December 11, approximately 2.4 million miles away from the planet. Researchers expect this asteroid to pass by 12 more times in the next 175 years. Full details for this asteroid and how to track it online are available in this article.