The true colors of Uranus and Neptune |
The true colors of Uranus and Neptune |
Jan 5 2024, 09:58 AM
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Member Group: Members Posts: 241 Joined: 16-May 06 From: Geneva, Switzerland Member No.: 773 |
An interesting new study reveals the true colors of ice giants. It appears that Neptune’s true color is a pale greenish-blue similar to that of Uranus, contrary to popular images that show it to be a much deeper shade of blue. Uranus is slightly whiter. Ultimately, Neptune has a thinner layer of haze, allowing more sunlight to reach deeper in the atmosphere. At such depth, it can be absorbed by methane gas, which soaks up red light – making the planet appear ever so slightly more blue. The presence of amassed methane ice particles may also explain why Uranus changes its color slightly during its 84-year orbit around the sun.
https://www.space.com/uranus-neptune-simila...oyager-2-images Best wishes for 2024 Marc PS: See also: https://theconversation.com/how-we-discover...n-colour-220244 |
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Jan 5 2024, 06:55 PM
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#2
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2517 Joined: 13-September 05 Member No.: 497 |
The paper itself is here: https://academic.oup.com/mnras/article/527/4/11521/7511973
Note that the paper references Bjorn's work at https://www.planetary.org/articles/uranus-n...olor-difference so this is old news for this forum. At least the super-saturated Voyager images are, and I'm not totally convinced by the tristimulus discussion in the paper -- yet another "what does this look like to the human eye" conundrum. -------------------- Disclaimer: This post is based on public information only. Any opinions are my own.
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Lo-Fi Version | Time is now: 24th May 2024 - 07:21 PM |
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