Scientists already knew that Neptune and Uranus get their general bluish appearance from the methane in their atmosphere, which absorbs incoming sunlight’s red hues, leaving blues and greens for our eyes to see. And deep in their interior, scientists suspect, the pressure is so intense that carbon atoms compress into diamonds. They are surface-less worlds, with atmospheres of hydrogen, helium, and a splash of methane. They have so much in common: They’re about the same size-bigger than Earth, but smaller than Jupiter and Saturn. The two ice giants-so called because scientists believe the planets were originally glommed together from icy materials-are often studied in this way, as a pair. Irwin told me that he and his team had set out to study the atmosphere of both Neptune and Uranus, not to investigate the specific mystery of Neptune’s lovely appearance. Indeed, Neptune’s brief foray into the news cycle last week, because of a new study about what makes Neptune so blue, was a rare appearance.Īnd even that finding was an accidental discovery, according to Patrick Irwin, a planetary physicist at Oxford University and the lead author of the study. And planetary scientists recently announced that NASA should prioritize sending a probe to Uranus in the next decade. For 13 whole years, the Cassini spacecraft orbited Saturn before plunging into the planet, ending its glorious streak of observations. Mercury is a frequent scapegoat for astrology-minded folks having a bad day (even though Mercury being in retrograde is actually just an optical illusion in our night sky). Space robots regularly provide snapshots of the surface of Mars and the clouds of Jupiter. Not as often as the other planets, certainly. You don’t really hear about Neptune, do you?
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |