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Color-corrected images reveal accurate portraits of Uranus and Neptune
www.accuweather.com ^ | Jan 5, 2024 7:55 AM CST | By Ashley Strickland

Posted on 01/09/2024 11:28:41 AM PST by Red Badger

Astronomers have used telescope data to color-correct Voyager 2 images of Neptune and Uranus, revealing that the planets have a similar greenish blue hue.

VIDEO AT LINK...........

Panels a and b show early images of the visible appearance of Uranus and Neptune reconstructed from Voyager 2 ISS images in 1986 and 1989, respectively, showing Uranus to be pale blue-green, and Neptune dark blue (PIA18182 and PIA01492, credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech). While these early Uranus images were close to ‘true’ colour, the Neptune images were actually stretched and enhanced. Panels c and d show more recent reconstructions of the true colours of these planets, showing them to be more similarly coloured (credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Björn Jónsson,

https://www.planetary.org/articles/uranus-neptune-color-difference).

The cores of Uranus and Neptune may contain “superionic water” that’s somewhere between a solid and a liquid.

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Often appearing in images to have starkly different hues, the true colors of Neptune and Uranus may be more similar than previously thought, new research has found.

The first detailed glimpses of the two ice giants on the outer edge of our solar system were made possible by NASA’s Voyager 2 mission, which conducted flybys of Uranus in 1986 and Neptune in 1989. Voyager 2 remains the only spacecraft to fly by both worlds.

Uranus appeared to be a pale cyan color, while Neptune was depicted as a striking deep blue. Voyager 2 captured images of each planet in separate colors, and the single-color images were combined to create composites. The images of Neptune were enhanced to show the white clouds and winds of the planet’s atmosphere.

“Although the familiar Voyager 2 images of Uranus were published in a form closer to ‘true’ colour, those of Neptune were, in fact, stretched and enhanced, and therefore made artificially too blue,” said Patrick Irwin, a professor of planetary physics at the University of Oxford and author of a new study about the images, in a statement.

“Even though the artificially-saturated colour was known at the time amongst planetary scientists — and the images were released with captions explaining it — that distinction had become lost over time.”

Hubble Space Telescope’s Imaging Spectrograph and the Very Large Telescope’s Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer instrument both capture a continuous spectrum of colors, resulting in better color accuracy. Irwin and his team applied data collected using those instruments to the original Voyager 2 images.

The corrected images show that Neptune and Uranus have a similar greenish-blue hue. Both planets have atmospheric haze, but Neptune appears slightly bluer because it has a thinner haze layer.

Voyager 2 captured the first detailed images of Uranus in 1986 (left) and Neptune in 1989. (NASA/JPL-Caltech)

“Applying our model to the original data, we have been able to reconstitute the most accurate representation yet of the colour of both Neptune and Uranus,” Irwin said.

The team’s results and the new image, published Thursday in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, not only address a long-standing question about the ice giants, they pave the way for a better understanding of the enigmatic planets, researchers say.

Uranus’ shifting colors

While solving one planetary mystery, the research team seized the opportunity to answer another: why Uranus seems to change colors as it orbits the sun, as seen in the video loop below.

A year on Uranus lasts 84 Earth years. While the planet seems greener during its summer and winter solstices, it has a bluer hue during the equinoxes.

The unusual world spins on its side, so one of the planet’s poles points toward Earth and the sun during solstices.

During their comparison of images of Uranus for the study, the researchers looked at measurements of the planet’s brightness recorded by the Lowell Observatory in Arizona from 1950 to 2016.

The team developed a model comparing light data from the polar regions versus the equatorial regions and determined that the polar regions are more reflective in green and red wavelengths of light. This model involved adding a “hood” of a gradually thickening haze made of methane ice, which has been observed when the planet moves from equinox to solstice.

“In this way, we have demonstrated that Uranus is greener at the solstice due to the polar regions having reduced methane abundance but also an increased thickness of brightly scattering methane ice particles,” Irwin said.

Dr. Heidi Hammel, vice president for science at the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, has spent decades studying the ice giants.

“The misperception of Neptune’s colour, as well as the unusual colour changes of Uranus, have bedevilled us for decades,” said Hammel, who was not involved in the study, in a statement. “This comprehensive study should finally put both issues to rest.”

Investigating ice giants

Many mysteries remain about the ice giants. The James Webb Space Telescope recently revealed a new portrait of Uranus showcasing its often invisible rings and hidden features of its atmosphere.

A view of Uranus and six of its 27 moons. Many of the planet's moons are too faint to see in the image. (NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI. Image processing: J. DePasquale (STScI))

In recent years, researchers have detected X-rays coming from Uranus. Scientists also found a weird “blip” in Voyager 2 data indicating the spacecraft flew through a plasmoid, a giant magnetic bubble that likely pinched off part of the planet’s atmosphere and floated out into space.

“A mission to explore the Uranian system — from its bizarre seasonal atmosphere, to its diverse collection of rings and moons — is a high priority for the space agencies in the decades to come,” said study coauthor Leigh Fletcher, a planetary scientist at the University of Leicester, in a statement.

“Earth-based studies like this, showing how Uranus’ appearance and colour has changed over the decades in response to the weirdest seasons in the Solar System, will be vital in placing the discoveries of this future mission into their broader context.”


TOPICS: Arts/Photography; Astronomy; History; Science
KEYWORDS: astronomy; klingons; neptune; puck; science; tldr; uranus; uranusjokes; voyager2
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To: NavyShoe
...Think about that...

William Herschel, the man who discovered Uranus, lived to be 83 years old, nearly the same time as the orbit. Neptune was discovered by two men. One who predicted its orbit and the other who actually looked for it at the predicted location and saw it. Add up the total ages of both of those men and you get the orbit period of Neptune . Think about that!

21 posted on 01/09/2024 12:12:43 PM PST by Nateman (If the Pedo Profit Mad Moe (pig pee upon him!) was not the Antichrist then he comes in second.)
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To: Red Badger

Are the moons of Uranus on an orbital plane (declination) similar to Uranus or do they go around it like juggling balls? Asking for a friend.


22 posted on 01/09/2024 12:21:02 PM PST by Buttons12 ( )
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To: Red Badger

As you move further from the Sun you obviously get less energy so you would expect the winds to slow down on planets the further away you went. The opposite is true! Apparently as you approach a cold point of super-fluids where there is no friction the winds have to get faster and faster to have enough turbulence to equal the energy input.


23 posted on 01/09/2024 12:21:53 PM PST by Nateman (If the Pedo Profit Mad Moe (pig pee upon him!) was not the Antichrist then he comes in second.)
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To: Red Badger

That reminds me; I’m due for my colonoscopy.


24 posted on 01/09/2024 12:23:41 PM PST by Jeff Chandler (THE ISSUE IS NEVER THE ISSUE. THE REVOLUTION IS THE ISSUE.)
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To: Red Badger

I can see Uranus from my deck.


25 posted on 01/09/2024 12:27:44 PM PST by wyokostur
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To: Jeff Chandler

Just had my 3rd one!..............


26 posted on 01/09/2024 12:31:23 PM PST by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while l aliens are put up in hotels.....................)
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To: Buttons12

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uranus#Moons


27 posted on 01/09/2024 12:33:16 PM PST by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while l aliens are put up in hotels.....................)
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To: George J. Jetso

Are you sure you’re not thinking of Goofy?


28 posted on 01/09/2024 12:42:35 PM PST by Laslo Fripp (Doesn’t anybody proofread anymore?)
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To: rdl6989

I figured one of them would be sorta brownish...


29 posted on 01/09/2024 12:46:22 PM PST by bigbob
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To: Red Badger
At least their color is correct...................

Blue balls?
30 posted on 01/09/2024 1:05:50 PM PST by BikerJoe
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To: Red Badger
Why did Uranus apply for a job?

Because it wanted to join the solar system's "orbit" of professionals!

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Why did Uranus break up with Saturn?

It couldn't stand the ring drama!

31 posted on 01/09/2024 1:06:31 PM PST by mjp (pro-freedom & pro-wealth $)
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To: DarrellZero

They are so small in my telescope.


32 posted on 01/09/2024 3:18:25 PM PST by telescope115 (I NEED MY SPACE!!! 🔭)
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To: Nateman

Nice astronomy facts! Thanks!


33 posted on 01/09/2024 3:19:30 PM PST by telescope115 (I NEED MY SPACE!!! 🔭)
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To: rdl6989

More raw meat for the Babylon Bee....

Lol.


34 posted on 01/09/2024 3:20:50 PM PST by cgbg ("Our democracy" = Their Kleptocracy)
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To: Red Badger

“Angry Red?

As in Inflamed?....................”

Maybe it looks like one of those pizza asses.


35 posted on 01/09/2024 8:04:40 PM PST by Clutch Martin ("The trouble ain't that there is too many fools, but that the lightning ain't distributed right." )
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