Climate Change On Neptune?

Neptune’s Temperature Is Mysteriously Changing, Stumping Astronomers

It looks like Neptune’s temperature is mysteriously changing leaving astronomers a bit confused.

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Temperatures in the planet’s stratosphere dropped by roughly 14 degrees Fahrenheit between 2003 and 2018.

The solar system’s outermost planet – Hey now! Pluto matters! I always consider Pluto a planet! So let me rephrase… Neptune, the SECOND outermost planet is over 30 times as far from the Sun as Earth.

Here’s a look at Thermal images of Neptune taken between 2006 and 2020… An international team of astronomers used ground-based telescopes, including the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope, to track Neptune’s atmospheric temperatures over a 17-year period.

Lead study author Dr. Michael Roman from the University of Leicester in the UK said the change was unexpected. “Since we have been observing Neptune during its early southern summer, we expected temperatures to be slowly growing warmer, not colder.”

The distant world is invisible to the naked eye, setting it apart from Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and Uranus.
**Yes – believe it or not – most people can see Uranus with the naked eye.

I know… it’s Uranus… but that doesn’t stop me from making the joke. It’s a joke about your butt.

Here’s another pic… Neptune as seen in visible light (that’s the blue one in the center) and thermal-infrared wavelengths seen on the right in 2020. The center image combines multiple images from the Hubble Space Telescope, while the thermal-infrared image on the right was taken from the Subaru Telescope on Maunakea, Hawaii.

In the thermal-infrared, Neptune’s warm south pole glows more brightly than ever seen before.

***I wonder if they checked the heat on Uranus… Sorry…

The international team used observations from ground and space-based telescopes in thermal-infrared wavelengths beyond the visible light spectrum. By analyzing the data, they were able to reveal a more complete picture of temperature trends than ever before.

The scans showed a decline in brightness, indicating a decline in global average temperatures in the second layer of atmosphere as you go upward. Neptune experiences seasons just like Earth thanks to its axial tilt. However, it takes over 165 years to complete an orbit around the Sun. Therefore, a season on Neptune lasts more than 40 years.

Scientists said that nobody expected to see such rapid changes because of the LONG seasonal change.

BUT not so fast! At Neptune’s southern pole, the stratosphere warmed by roughly 20 degrees between 2018 and 2020 — reversing the previous trend. Here’s a chart with the pic we looked at before.

The plot shows the relative change in the thermal-infrared brightness from Neptune’s stratosphere with time for all existing images taken by ground-based telescopes. A reminder… Brighter images are interpreted as warmer. The south pole appears to have become dramatically warmer in just the past few years.

Scientists have never observed such a warming trend on the planet before.

The mysterious results challenge scientists’ understanding of Neptune’s atmospheric variability.

Dr. Roman theorizes that the temperature variations may be related to seasonal changes in Neptune’s atmospheric chemistry. He says this can alter how effectively the atmosphere cools.

But random variability in weather patterns or even a response to the 11-year solar activity cycle may be the cause. Hmm… If it can happen there?

Follow-up observations of the temperature and cloud patterns are still necessary to assess any possible connection in the years ahead. The James Webb Space Telescope – That’s the fancy new one just now getting up and running –will observe Neptune later this year. And close your windows because they’re also planning on looking at Uranus!

I couldn’t resist they joke but they really are going to look at Uranus. Not your butt.

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Video Credit:
Videvo – Videvo.net
Pexels.com

Image Credit:
European Southern Observatory

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