NASA researchers analyzed thermal infrared images of Neptune from multiple observatories over a period of nearly 20 years, and their analysis revealed that average temperatures in Neptune’s stratosphere unexpectedly decreased by about 14 degrees Fahrenheit (8 degrees Celsius) between 2003 and 2018.
University of Leicester researcher and lead author of the study, Dr Michael Roman, said: ‘This change was unexpected, given that we were observing Neptune during the early southern summer, expecting temperatures to be warmer, not cooler.
The researchers studied thermal infrared images from a range of observatories, including the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope, the Gemini Southern Telescope in Chile, the Subaru Telescope, the Keck Telescope and the Gemini North Telescope, all in Hawaii, NASA, and the Spitzer Space Telescope.
The images revealed that between 2003 and 2018, temperatures in Neptune’s stratosphere “the second layer of the atmosphere as you move up” decreased by 14 degrees Fahrenheit (8 degrees Celsius).
Experts point out that Neptune lives several seasons, similar to the Earth, and while the Earth takes 365 days to complete an orbit around the sun, Neptune takes more than 165 years, and this means that seasons on the ice giant change much slower, and each lasts for more than 40 Earth years. .
“Our data covers less than half of Neptune’s season, so no one expected to see big, rapid changes,” said Dr. Glenn Orton, senior researcher at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
And while thermal data revealed that temperatures across the stratosphere declined from 2003 to 2018, surprisingly the reverse was true for Neptune’s south pole from 2018 to 2020.
Source: Daily Mail