"Amateur Astronomers Invited to Aid NASA's New Horizons in Studying Uranus and Neptune"

NASA's New Horizons spacecraft, along with the Hubble Space Telescope and amateur astronomers worldwide, is embarking on an observing campaign of Uranus and Neptune to learn more about their atmospheres and thermal energy. The campaign aims to gather data on how the planets absorb and emit heat energy, as well as how thermal energy is transported from their cores to their outer atmospheres. Amateur astronomers with telescopes as small as 16 inches can contribute by imaging and tracking activity in the planets' atmospheres, which appear as bright spots caused by swirling storms. The observations will provide the most complete survey of Uranus and Neptune to date, and participants are encouraged to share their images on social media using the hashtag #NHIceGiants.