A warm Neptune’s methane reveals core mass and vigorous atmospheric mixing (2024)

FAQs

Why does methane make Neptune blue? ›

Neptune's atmosphere is made up of hydrogen, helium and methane. The methane in Neptune's upper atmosphere absorbs the red light from the sun but reflects the blue light from the Sun back into space. This is why Neptune appears blue.

Neptune's atmosphere is made up mostly of hydrogen and helium with just a little bit of methane.

Like the other giant planets in our solar system, Neptune does not have a solid surface. Scientists believe that the interior of the planet is made up of a solid rocky core covered by a hot and dense liquid layer of water and ammonia.

Like the gas giants (Jupiter and Saturn), Neptune's atmosphere is composed primarily of hydrogen and helium, along with traces of hydrocarbons and possibly nitrogen, but contains a higher proportion of ices such as water, ammonia and methane.

Sunlight is therefore reflected back into space, not by a solid surface as with Earth, but by gases in Neptune's atmosphere. These gases are dominated by hydrogen and helium with a smaller amount of methane and it is the methane that is responsible for Neptune's colour - methane absorbs red light and reflects blue.

Methane absorbs red light and reflects blue, which is why both planets have a generally blue color. There are traces of other elements in their atmospheres, and the chemical reactions between various molecules can create a haze of aerosols that can taint their basic blue hue.

Like Earth, Neptune has a rocky core made up of iron and other metals, with a mass just greater than our planet. Temperatures in the core could reach 9,260 F (5,127 C). Like the other gas giants, Neptune boasts a series of rings.

atmosphere contains ~80% hydrogen, 19% helium, and 1.5% methane.

No, Neptune is not moving away from the solar system. In fact, all the planets in our solar system, including Neptune, are in stable orbits around the Sun. This is due to the balance between the gravitational forces that pull the planets towards the Sun and the centrifugal forces that push them outwards.

In addition to these directly observable characteristics, at the immense pressures inside these giants, familiar materials can transform into exotic forms. One possible phenomenon is particularly dazzling: deep within Neptune and Uranus, it may rain diamonds.

Can you stand on Neptune's core? ›

If a person were to attempt to stand on Neptune, they would sink through the gaseous layers. As they descended, they would experience increased temperatures and pressures until they finally touched down on the solid core itself.

“But it would be premature to send human beings to most places in the solar system, including Pluto, today, because we don't know enough about the planet to design such a mission. It's also very far beyond our technical capabilities, and there's no present need to spend the kind of money that it would take.

No other planet in our solar system has rings as splendid as Saturn's. They are so expansive and bright that they were discovered as soon as humans began pointing telescopes at the night sky.

Yes, Venus spins backwards compared to most of the other planets. It spins or rotates in the opposite direction that Earth rotates. This means that on Venus the Sun rises in the west and sets in the east.

Mercury is the fastest orbiting planet of our solar system.

The blue of the sky is primarily due scattering by gas molecules that are mostly nitrogen (~78%) and oxygen (~20%) plus a number of other gases ( e.g., carbon dioxide, methane, ozone). The small size of these molecules scatters primarily the blue component of sunlight.

In this layer on both planets, methane ice condenses on aerosols, but then the two worlds diverge. Neptune's more active atmosphere likely produces snow as it moves methane particles into the haze, which removes haze over time. Uranus, however, has a thicker layer of haze due to its slower-moving atmosphere.

Uranus gets its blue-green color from methane gas in the atmosphere. Sunlight passes through the atmosphere and is reflected back out by Uranus' cloud tops. Methane gas absorbs the red portion of the light, resulting in a blue-green color.

Neptune and Uranus look blue/green due to methane in their atmosphere. Mercury and Mars look red due to red rocks on their surface.