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The Dark Side of Uranus' Rings (4 of 4)

Caption: Uranus' rings appear edge-on to the Earth in August 2007 (far right) and the angle reveals the unlit side of the rings. The series of infrared images shows the change in viewing aspect, or ring opening angle. The Sun will cross the ring plane of Uranus on Dec. 7, 2007. This image relates to an article that appeared in the Aug. 24, 2007, issue of the journal Science, published by AAAS. The study, by Dr. Imke de Pater and colleagues of University of California, Berkeley in Berkeley, Calif., was titled "The Dark Side of the Rings of Uranus: Results from the First Ground-based Image."

Credit: Photo provided by mke de Pater/UC Berkeley, Heidi B. Hammel/Space Science Institute, and the W.M. Keck Observatory, via Science-AAAS.

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