Two decades of observations of Neptune revealed an unusual “cooling” on the planet, the most distant from the Sun in the star system. It is noteworthy that the temperature drops even at the height of the local astronomical summer.
Image Source: NASA/ESA
It is known that Neptune is 30 times farther from the Sun than the Earth, and the year for the planet lasts 165 Earth years. The ice giant’s seasons are about 40 times longer than Earth’s. Unexpectedly, it turned out that the temperature on the planet dropped by 8 degrees Celsius in the summer.
According to scientists at the University of Leicester in the UK, this should not have happened, since temperatures usually get warmer, not colder, with the onset of summer. An analysis of infrared images of the planet taken from 2003 to 2018 by the best telescopes in the world showed that the observed cooling was not uniform.
A study of images of Neptune’s stratosphere over the south pole from 2018 to 2020 showed that, on the contrary, there was a warming of 11 degrees Celsius – previously such changes were not recorded. However, scientists emphasize that observations of the planet have only become possible in the last few decades, so science knows very little about the process of the natural change of seasons on Neptune.
Image Source: ESO/COMICS
According to one of the authors of the study, data are actually available for only half of the local season. Scientists still do not know what caused the rapid changes on a cosmic scale. Some suggest that they may be related to 11-year cycles of solar activity. In addition, changes can be provoked by seasonal changes in the chemistry of the planet’s atmosphere.
Scientists hope that further observations will shed more light on the mysterious events. It is expected that the telescope will play an important role in understanding the issue “James Webb“- it will allow you to create new, more accurate temperature and chemical maps.
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