Atmosphere of Uranus vast. The number density of atomic hydrogen in the corona falls slowly with the distance from the planet, remaining as high a few hundred atoms per cm at a few radii from Uranus. The effects of this bloated exosphere include a drag on small particles orbiting Uranus, causing a general depletion of dust in the Uranian rings. The infalling dust in turn contaminates the upper atmosphere of the planet. Uranus has a relatively bland appearance, lacking broad colorful bands and large clouds prevalent on Jupiter and Saturn. No discrete features were observed in Uranus's atmosphere before 1986. The most conspicuous
Observational astronomy atmosphere is opaque at the wavelengths used by X-ray astronomy, gamma-ray astronomy, UV astronomy and (except for a few wavelength "windows") far infrared astronomy, so observations must be carried out mostly from balloons or space observatories. Powerful gamma rays can, however be detected by the large air showers they produce, and the study of cosmic rays is a rapidly expanding branch of astronomy. For much of the history of observational astronomy, almost all observation was performed in the visual spectrum with optical telescopes. While the Earth's atmosphere is relatively transparent in this portion of the electromagnetic spectrum, most telescope work