* . *
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Privacy & Policy
  • Contact
Monday, June 2, 2025
Earth-News
  • Home
  • Business
  • Entertainment
    Rising stars: Young classical musicians surging on social media – Yahoo

    Meet the Next Generation of Classical Music Sensations Making Waves on Social Media!

    Devin Harjes Dies: ‘Manifest’ & ‘Boardwalk Empire’ Actor Was 41 – WyomingNews.com

    Tragic Loss: Devin Harjes, Star of ‘Manifest’ and ‘Boardwalk Empire,’ Passes Away at 41

    Why Starz Entertainment Stock Soared Today – The Motley Fool

    Unpacking the Surge: What Fueled Starz Entertainment’s Stock Explosion Today!

    Unveiling the Enigmatic: First Looks at Destruction and Puck in ‘The Sandman

    Jackie Chan Reveals This Family Member ‘Never Watched’ The Whole Of Any Of His Movies – Yahoo

    Jackie Chan Reveals This Family Member ‘Never Watched’ The Whole Of Any Of His Movies – Yahoo

    Mavs CEO holds firm on new arena, entertainment district in Dallas – Dallas News

    Mavs CEO Stands Strong on Vision for New Arena and Entertainment District in Dallas

  • General
  • Health
  • News

    Cracking the Code: Why China’s Economic Challenges Aren’t Shaking Markets, Unlike America’s” – Bloomberg

    Trump’s Narrow Window to Spread the Truth About Harris

    Trump’s Narrow Window to Spread the Truth About Harris

    Israel-Gaza war live updates: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Iran, group says

    Israel-Gaza war live updates: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Iran, group says

    PAP Boss to Niger Delta Youths, Stay Away from the Protest

    PAP Boss to Niger Delta Youths, Stay Away from the Protest

    Court Restricts Protests In Lagos To Freedom, Peace Park

    Court Restricts Protests In Lagos To Freedom, Peace Park

    Fans React to Jazz Jennings’ Inspiring Weight Loss Journey

    Fans React to Jazz Jennings’ Inspiring Weight Loss Journey

    Trending Tags

    • Trump Inauguration
    • United Stated
    • White House
    • Market Stories
    • Election Results
  • Science
  • Sports
  • Technology
    Prosecutors accuse men of exporting U.S. military technology to China – Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

    Men Charged with Illegally Exporting U.S. Military Technology to China

    ROLAND’S NEW WIRELESS TRIGGER TECHNOLOGY, PORTER & DAVIES ON TOUR, NEW 64 AUDIO ASPIRE UNIVERSAL IEM MODELS, WAVES FREE PLUGIN PACK – Modern Drummer Magazine

    ROLAND’S NEW WIRELESS TRIGGER TECHNOLOGY, PORTER & DAVIES ON TOUR, NEW 64 AUDIO ASPIRE UNIVERSAL IEM MODELS, WAVES FREE PLUGIN PACK – Modern Drummer Magazine

    This giant microwave may change the future of war – MIT Technology Review

    Revolutionizing Warfare: The Impact of a Game-Changing Giant Microwave

    Bajeed Pattan Joins Forbes Technology Council as Innovation Leader – PRWeb

    Bajeed Pattan Takes the Helm as Innovation Leader at Forbes Technology Council!

    Lafayette Regional Technology Council – Tech Leadership That’s Homegrown and Future-Focused – Discover Lafayette

    Lafayette Regional Technology Council – Tech Leadership That’s Homegrown and Future-Focused – Discover Lafayette

    Drone technology demo in Cambria County showcases future of lifesaving medical deliveries – local21news.com

    Revolutionizing Healthcare: Drone Technology Takes Flight for Lifesaving Medical Deliveries in Cambria County

    Trending Tags

    • Nintendo Switch
    • CES 2017
    • Playstation 4 Pro
    • Mark Zuckerberg
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Business
  • Entertainment
    Rising stars: Young classical musicians surging on social media – Yahoo

    Meet the Next Generation of Classical Music Sensations Making Waves on Social Media!

    Devin Harjes Dies: ‘Manifest’ & ‘Boardwalk Empire’ Actor Was 41 – WyomingNews.com

    Tragic Loss: Devin Harjes, Star of ‘Manifest’ and ‘Boardwalk Empire,’ Passes Away at 41

    Why Starz Entertainment Stock Soared Today – The Motley Fool

    Unpacking the Surge: What Fueled Starz Entertainment’s Stock Explosion Today!

    Unveiling the Enigmatic: First Looks at Destruction and Puck in ‘The Sandman

    Jackie Chan Reveals This Family Member ‘Never Watched’ The Whole Of Any Of His Movies – Yahoo

    Jackie Chan Reveals This Family Member ‘Never Watched’ The Whole Of Any Of His Movies – Yahoo

    Mavs CEO holds firm on new arena, entertainment district in Dallas – Dallas News

    Mavs CEO Stands Strong on Vision for New Arena and Entertainment District in Dallas

  • General
  • Health
  • News

    Cracking the Code: Why China’s Economic Challenges Aren’t Shaking Markets, Unlike America’s” – Bloomberg

    Trump’s Narrow Window to Spread the Truth About Harris

    Trump’s Narrow Window to Spread the Truth About Harris

    Israel-Gaza war live updates: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Iran, group says

    Israel-Gaza war live updates: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Iran, group says

    PAP Boss to Niger Delta Youths, Stay Away from the Protest

    PAP Boss to Niger Delta Youths, Stay Away from the Protest

    Court Restricts Protests In Lagos To Freedom, Peace Park

    Court Restricts Protests In Lagos To Freedom, Peace Park

    Fans React to Jazz Jennings’ Inspiring Weight Loss Journey

    Fans React to Jazz Jennings’ Inspiring Weight Loss Journey

    Trending Tags

    • Trump Inauguration
    • United Stated
    • White House
    • Market Stories
    • Election Results
  • Science
  • Sports
  • Technology
    Prosecutors accuse men of exporting U.S. military technology to China – Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

    Men Charged with Illegally Exporting U.S. Military Technology to China

    ROLAND’S NEW WIRELESS TRIGGER TECHNOLOGY, PORTER & DAVIES ON TOUR, NEW 64 AUDIO ASPIRE UNIVERSAL IEM MODELS, WAVES FREE PLUGIN PACK – Modern Drummer Magazine

    ROLAND’S NEW WIRELESS TRIGGER TECHNOLOGY, PORTER & DAVIES ON TOUR, NEW 64 AUDIO ASPIRE UNIVERSAL IEM MODELS, WAVES FREE PLUGIN PACK – Modern Drummer Magazine

    This giant microwave may change the future of war – MIT Technology Review

    Revolutionizing Warfare: The Impact of a Game-Changing Giant Microwave

    Bajeed Pattan Joins Forbes Technology Council as Innovation Leader – PRWeb

    Bajeed Pattan Takes the Helm as Innovation Leader at Forbes Technology Council!

    Lafayette Regional Technology Council – Tech Leadership That’s Homegrown and Future-Focused – Discover Lafayette

    Lafayette Regional Technology Council – Tech Leadership That’s Homegrown and Future-Focused – Discover Lafayette

    Drone technology demo in Cambria County showcases future of lifesaving medical deliveries – local21news.com

    Revolutionizing Healthcare: Drone Technology Takes Flight for Lifesaving Medical Deliveries in Cambria County

    Trending Tags

    • Nintendo Switch
    • CES 2017
    • Playstation 4 Pro
    • Mark Zuckerberg
No Result
View All Result
Earth-News
No Result
View All Result
Home Science

This is what Uranus and Neptune may really look like

January 5, 2024
in Science
This is what Uranus and Neptune may really look like
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

For decades, images taken of Neptune have looked like the planet has a deep blue hue, while Uranus seemed more green. However, these two ice giants may actually look more similar to eachother than astronomers previously believed. According to a study published January 5 in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, our solar system’s furthest planets’ true colors could both be similar pale shades of greenish blue. 

[Related: The secret to Voyagers’ spectacular space odyssey.]

Images versus reality

NASA’s Voyager 2 mission remains the only flyby of both ice giants conducted by a spacecraft. It gave us the first detailed images of these far-flung planets. Voyager 2 conducted a flyby of Uranus in 1986, and the images revealed a planet with a more pale cyan or blue color. The vessel flew by Neptune in 1989 and the imagery showed a planet with a rich blue color.

However, astronomers have long understood that most modern images of both planets don’t accurately reflect their true colors. Voyager 2 captured images of each planet in separate colors and these single-color images were then put together to make composites. These composite images were not always accurately balanced, particularly for the planet Neptune which was believed to appear too blue. The contrast on the early Voyager images of Neptune were also strongly enhanced to better reveal the clouds and winds of the planet. 

“Although the familiar Voyager 2 images of Uranus were published in a form closer to ‘true’ color, those of Neptune were, in fact, stretched and enhanced, and therefore made artificially too blue,” study co-author and University of Oxford astronomer Patrick Irwin said in a statement. “Even though the artificially-saturated color was known at the time amongst planetary scientists–and the images were released with captions explaining it–that distinction had become lost over time.”

Creating a more accurate view

In the new study, the team applied data taken from the Hubble Space Telescope’s Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) and the Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) on the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope. 

With both the STIS and MUSE, each pixel is a continuous spectrum of colors, so their observations can be processed more clearly to determine the more accurate color of the planets, instead of what is being seen with a filter. 

The team used the data to rebalance the composite color images that were recorded by Voyager 2’s onboard camera and by the Hubble Space Telescope’s Wide Field Camera 3. The rebalancing revealed that both Uranus and Neptune are actually a similar pale shade of greenish blue. Neptune has a slight hint of more blue, which the model showed to be a thin layer of haze on the planet. 

The changing colors of Uranus

This research also provides a likely answer to why Uranus changes color slightly during its 84 year-long orbit around the sun. The team first compared images of Uranus to measurements of its brightness that were taken at blue and green wavelengths by the Lowell Observatory in Arizona from 1950 to 2016. These measurements showed that Uranus looks a little greener during its summer and winter solstices, when its poles are pointed towards the sun. However, during the equinoxes–when the sun is over the planet’s equator–it appears to have a more blue tinge. 

Animation of seasonal changes in color on Uranus during two Uranus years. The left-hand disc shows the appearance of Uranus to the naked eye, while the right-hand disc has been color stretched and enhanced to make atmospheric features clearer.Animation of seasonal changes in color on Uranus during two Uranus years, running from 1900 to 2068 and starting just before southern summer solstice, when Uranus’s south pole points almost directly towards the Sun. The left-hand disc shows the appearance of Uranus to the naked eye, while the right-hand disc has been color stretched and enhanced to make atmospheric features clearer. In this animation, Uranus’s spin has been slowed down by over 3000 times so that the planetary rotation can be seen, with discrete storm clouds seen passing across the planet’s disc. As the planet moves towards its solstices a pale polar ‘hood’ of increasing cloud opacity and reduced methane abundance can be seen filling more of the planet’s disc leading to seasonal changes in the overall color of the planet. The changing size of Uranus’s disc is due to Uranus’s distance from the Sun changing during its orbit.
Patrick Irwin/University of Oxford

One already established reason for the change is due to Uranus’ a highly unusual spin. The planet spins almost on its side during orbit, so its north and south poles point almost directly towards the sun and Earth during its solstices. Any changes to the reflectivity of Uranus’ poles would have a major impact on the planet’s overall brightness when viewed from the Earth, according to the authors. What was less clear to astronomers was how and why this reflectivity differs. The team developed a model to compare the bands of colors of Uranus’s polar regions to its equatorial regions. 

They found that polar regions are more reflective at green and red wavelengths than at blue wavelengths. Uranus is more reflective at these wavelengths partially because gas methane absorbs the color red and methane is about half as abundant near Uranus’ poles than the equator.

[Related: Neptune’s bumpy childhood could reveal our solar system’s missing planets.]

However, this wasn’t enough to fully explain the color change so the researchers added a new variable to the model in the form of a ‘hood’ of gradually thickening icy haze which has previously been observed when Uranus moves from equinox to summer solstice. They believe that this haze is likely made up of methane ice particles.

After simulating this pole shift in the model, the ice particles further increased the reflection at green and red wavelengths at the planet’s poles, which explained that Uranus looks greener at the solstice due to less methane at the poles and increased thickness of the methane ice particles. 

“The misperception of Neptune’s color, as well as the unusual color changes of Uranus, have bedeviled us for decades,” Heidi Hammel, of the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy said in a statement. “This comprehensive study should finally put both issues to rest.” Hammel is not an author of the new study. 

Filling in this gap between the public perception of Neptune and its reality shows how data can be manipulated to show off certain features of a planet or enhance visualizations. 

“There’s never been an attempt to deceive,” study co-author and University of Leicester planetary scientist Leigh Fletcher told The New York Times. “But there has been an attempt to tell a story with these images by making them aesthetically pleasing to the eye so that people can enjoy these beautiful scenes in a way that is, maybe, more meaningful than a fuzzy, gray, amorphous blob in the distance.”

Laura Baisas

>>> Read full article>>>
Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source : Popular Science – https://www.popsci.com/science/uranus-neptune-really-look-like/

Tags: NeptunescienceUranus
Previous Post

Lexington, Kentucky sent a tourism ad to ‘extraterrestrials’ with a DIY laser rig

Next Post

This long-lost, earliest MS-DOS precursor was discovered in a floppy disk collection

Jobs Report Could Be Early Sign of Tariffs Cost – U.S. News & World Report

Jobs Report Could Be Early Sign of Tariffs Cost – U.S. News & World Report

June 2, 2025
Mark Tremonti Headlines Belmont Stakes Day Entertainment – Thoroughbred Daily News

Mark Tremonti Takes Center Stage at Belmont Stakes Day Celebration!

June 2, 2025
Black Book Research: Health Plans Double Down on AI-Powered Fraud and Claims Integrity Solutions Amid Rising Audit Pressures – Newswire :) Press Release Distribution

Health Plans Embrace AI to Combat Fraud and Enhance Claims Integrity Amid Growing Audit Challenges

June 2, 2025
Opinion | The Politics and Perils of Pornography – The New York Times

Navigating the Complex Landscape of Pornography: Politics, Perils, and Perspectives

June 2, 2025
Prosecutors accuse men of exporting U.S. military technology to China – Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Men Charged with Illegally Exporting U.S. Military Technology to China

June 2, 2025
Yankees Trade Idea Reunites Aaron Judge With Former Outfielder – Yahoo Sports

Yankees Trade Idea Reunites Aaron Judge With Former Outfielder – Yahoo Sports

June 2, 2025
Frans and Liu receive outstanding paper in landscape ecology award – Michigan State University

Frans and Liu receive outstanding paper in landscape ecology award – Michigan State University

June 2, 2025
‘Amazing Worlds of Science Fiction and Science Fact’ Review: An Education in Exoplanets – WSJ

Exploring the Fascinating Realms of Science Fiction and Fact: A Journey Through Exoplanets

June 2, 2025
2-Year-Old Prodigy Joins ‘High IQ’ Club Mensa as Youngest Member Ever – ScienceAlert

Meet the 2-Year-Old Prodigy Who Just Became Mensa’s Youngest Member Ever!

June 2, 2025
Labubu Fever Ignites a Global Craze for Lifestyle and Investment – iChongqing

Labubu Fever Ignites a Global Craze for Lifestyle and Investment – iChongqing

June 2, 2025

Categories

Archives

June 2025
MTWTFSS
 1
2345678
9101112131415
16171819202122
23242526272829
30 
« May    
Earth-News.info

The Earth News is an independent English-language daily published Website from all around the World News

Browse by Category

  • Business (20,132)
  • Ecology (659)
  • Economy (674)
  • Entertainment (21,580)
  • General (15,257)
  • Health (9,717)
  • Lifestyle (676)
  • News (22,149)
  • People (675)
  • Politics (683)
  • Science (15,894)
  • Sports (21,179)
  • Technology (15,661)
  • World (661)

Recent News

Jobs Report Could Be Early Sign of Tariffs Cost – U.S. News & World Report

Jobs Report Could Be Early Sign of Tariffs Cost – U.S. News & World Report

June 2, 2025
Mark Tremonti Headlines Belmont Stakes Day Entertainment – Thoroughbred Daily News

Mark Tremonti Takes Center Stage at Belmont Stakes Day Celebration!

June 2, 2025
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Privacy & Policy
  • Contact

© 2023 earth-news.info

No Result
View All Result

© 2023 earth-news.info

No Result
View All Result

© 2023 earth-news.info

Go to mobile version