2024-01-13 20:00:00
For a long time, the color attributed to Neptune has been an intense azure blue, while Uranus tends more towards green. Thanks to the work of a team of scientists, we now have the most accurate representation of their appearance yet.
Our solar system is made up of eight planets of different color combinations. We know these nuances mainly thanks to photographs taken by terrestrial or space telescopes. However, the photos that we find on the internet are often filtered or digitally processed to reveal the nuances and characteristics of these planets. Recently, scientists conducted a comparative study aimed at precisely identifying the color of the twins Uranus and Neptune, known as the two blue planets of the solar system. To everyone’s surprise, the results published on January 4, 2024 in The Royal Astronomical Society indicate that these two twins have much more in common than we thought.
Neptune is not as blue as we thought
Until today, it was recognized in the collective consciousness that Neptune was a deep azure blue. For what ? In the summer of 1989, NASA’s Voyager 2 space probe provided the first images of this giant icy planet via radio transmission. But these first photos did not give a faithful representation of reality. In a statementa certain Patrick Irwin, the physicist and professor at the University of Oxford at the head of this study, explains that the colors of Neptune were “accentuated and improved” to bring out its details and reliefs, in particular “its clouds, its bands and its winds. Result: the most distant known planet Solar System has become artificially too blue. Although these adjustments were initially specified in the photo captions, they were gradually forgotten.
Uranus paler than its twin
To correct this misconception and redefine the true color of Neptune as accurately as possible, scientists used recent data. Those obtained by the STIS imaging spectrograph placed on the Hubble Space Telescope designed by NASA and the second generation wide-field 3D spectrograph (MUSE for short) of the European Southern Observatory (ESO) in Chile. Thanks to the processing capabilities of these ultra-sophisticated tools, the team was able to reprocess the images recorded in the 1980s by Voyager 2 and thus rebalance the recorded colors. “This revealed that Uranus and Neptune are actually a fairly similar shade of greenish blue.”we still read in this press release. The main difference is that Uranus is slightly paler than Neptune due in part to a lower abundance of methane in the upper atmosphere, which absorbs more light from the Sun.
Uranus color variations explained
Also, this study allows us to better understand why the color of Uranus varies regularly during its 84-year orbit around the Sun. Professor Irwin explains that it appears greener during its solstices, in other words in winter and summer, due in particular to a drop in methane levels in the polar regions. Conversely, its hue is a little bluer during its equinoxes, when the Sun overlooks the Equator. Experts explain this seasonal color variation by the unusual rotation of Uranus. “It turns almost sideways during its orbit, meaning that during the planet’s solstices, either its North Pole or South Pole points almost directly toward the Sun and Earth.“, enlighten the researchers.
This study, the first to explain why Uranus changes color during its orbit, also highlights the importance of these two planets for future space missions. “Une mission to explore the Uranian system – from its eerie seasonal atmosphere to its diverse collection of rings and moons – is a top priority for space agencies in the decades to come“, we learn from Professor Leigh Fletcher, planetary specialist at the University of Leicester and co-author of the new study.
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