from the Uranus'-favorite-music-is-Neptunes dept.
Telescopes reveal why Neptune is more blue than Uranus
Neptune and Uranus are so similar that scientists sometimes refer to the distant, icy planets as planetary twins. But these ice giants have one big difference: their color.
New space and ground-based telescope observations have revealed what's behind this difference in tone.
[...] Astronomers used the Gemini North telescope and NASA Infrared Telescope Facility, both in Hawaii, and the Hubble Space Telescope to create a model that could match up observations of Neptune and Uranus.
[...] The scientists determined that an excess of haze builds up in Uranus' atmosphere, which gives it a lighter appearance. This haze is thicker on Uranus than a similar atmospheric layer on Neptune, so it whitens the appearance of Uranus from our perspective.
Without this haze in either planetary atmosphere, astronomers believe both planets would be almost identically blue.
Shades of Uranus: Scientists know why the planet and Neptune are different hues of blue
[...] The study shows that embedded in the inner atmospheric planetary layers, there is even more haze than thought, rather than just icy clouds of methane and hydrogen sulfide. It is the first time a study took into account wavelengths from ultraviolet to near-infrared, rather than concentrating on a handful of light waves, authors said.
"It's also the first [study] to explain the difference in visible color between Uranus and Neptune," lead author Patrick Irwin, a planetary physics professor at Oxford University, said in a statement from the National Science Foundation's National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory, or NOIRLab.
It is good to understand phenomena in the atmosphere of other planets. But why didn't they say that Neptune is more Azure than Uranus?
(Score: -1, Spam) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 01 2022, @08:47PM
I WONDER HOW WELL SHE SUCKS COCK.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Wednesday June 01 2022, @09:02PM (3 children)
Joke
Someone had to do it.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 3, Funny) by stretch611 on Thursday June 02 2022, @12:13AM
obligatory Futurama...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0czFnIvKOJY [youtube.com]
Now with 5 covid vaccine shots/boosters altering my DNA :P
(Score: 2, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 02 2022, @03:55AM (1 child)
I was so excited to finally find it. My 4.5" reflector did it's job well. Uranus really does show as blue. I switched eyepieces and upped the magnification to 300x with my barlow lens and for a week straight I spent my nights observing Voyager 2 as it flew past in 1986. Nahhhh just kidding-obviously I can't see Voyager.
My 4.5 inches served me well enough in my early teens to allow me to eventually find Neptune. Farther away, smaller, dimmer, it certainly was not as stimulating or fulfilling as Uranus, but nonetheless an accomplishment that satisfies me to this day.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 02 2022, @06:33PM
Yeah, but I'd have to eat a LOT of blueberries first.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 01 2022, @09:02PM (2 children)
Uranus has more clouds, so clearly its more Azure than Neptune, right? Neptune's still more blue though.
(Score: 5, Funny) by DannyB on Wednesday June 01 2022, @09:09PM
Them's not clouds!
Azure is the color of blue smoke belched by the last gasps of a dying engine trying to keep running.
How often should I have my memory checked? I used to know but...
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 01 2022, @09:51PM
My anus is certainly NOT blue. As for the gaseous nature, what can I say? As you age the dairy does make you more gassy, but it is still good source of protein, vitamins, calcium and fats. Plus it is delicious.
(Score: 3, Funny) by maxwell demon on Thursday June 02 2022, @08:30AM (1 child)
But if people haze Uranus more (well, they certainly do, given all the Uranus jokes), shouldn't Uranus feel more blue? Or is it that Neptune feels blue because it doesn't get as much attention as Uranus?
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Thursday June 02 2022, @02:28PM
I restrained myself from making any of the well known Uranus jokes. It wasn't easy.
How often should I have my memory checked? I used to know but...
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 02 2022, @12:26PM
the woke ass is more blue.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 02 2022, @04:27PM
FTFY