Everybody knows Saturn has rings. And it turns out, it’s not the only planet with that distinction. Uranus also has rings, but some of them are different. New research has uncovered two new rings, a red ring and a blue ring, and that blue one is made up of water ice, which is giving scientists important clues about one of the weirdest bodies in our solar system.
Uranus is already unusual. It lays on its side in space and it rotates backwards. It’s not a pleasant place, made up of smoky fluid ice with winds up to 560 miles per hour and temperatures down to 370 degrees below zero. And despite this, there's still a lot we don't know about the planet.
Matthew Hedman is learning more about Uranus everyday. He’s a professor in the Department of Physics in the College of Science at the University of Idaho. You might remember Matt from last November, when he told us about finding a new moon orbiting Uranus. Well, he returned to tell us about its rings.
