Neptune, the most remote planet in our solar system, has experienced rapid and unexpected temperature changes, according to space scientists. Recent study was conducted by scientists from the University of Leicester and published in the Planetary Science Magazine†
Over the course of 17 years, the researchers tracked Neptune’s temperature changes and found that the cold planet, where temperatures drop to minus 220 degrees Celsius, are warming dramatically at the South Pole.
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“Neptune’s 165-year orbit, all seasonal changes are expected to take decades.” – consistent with the researchers. Neptune experiences seasons like Earth does. A Neptune season, on the other hand, lasts much longer, about 40 years, because a Neptune year is related to 165 Earth years.
10/ Because Neptune’s temperature changes were so unexpected, astronomers don’t yet know what could be causing them. They could be due to changes in Neptune’s stratospheric chemistry, or random weather patterns, or even the solar cycle.
— ESO (@ESO) Apr 11, 2022
The dramatic change in Neptune’s atmosphere could be the result of the planet’s chemistry or weather patterns, according to experts. They analyzed nearly 100 thermal-infrared images of Earth and found that, despite the arrival of summer, most of the world had actually cooled down. However, experts noted that the planet’s south pole had warmed again.
This kind of research is only possible with sensitive infrared images from large telescopes such as the VLT.” – Professor Leigh Fletcher from the University of Leicester.
According to the study, the typical global temperature dropped by eight degrees Celsius between 2003 and 2018. Between 2018 and 2020, however, the temperature at the pole rose by 11 degrees Celsius.
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Neptune is quite 30 times the gap between the sun and Earth, and it is the only planet in our system that cannot be seen with the oculus from Earth. Only NASA’s Voyager 2 spacecraft flew near Neptune in 1989.
Cover image: NASA/TWITTER