- News>
- Space
Springtime on Neptune bright clouds for 40 years
Washington, May 17: It`s springtime on Neptune, which means about 40 years of bright clouds -- something of a surprise to astronomers who were not necessarily expecting the seasons to change on this distant planet.
Washington, May 17: It`s springtime on Neptune, which means about 40 years of bright clouds -- something of a surprise to astronomers who were not necessarily expecting the seasons to change on this distant planet.
Actually, only the southern hemisphere appears to be experiencing a Neptunian spring, according to observations made with the Hubble space telescope. Like Earth, Neptune has a tilted axis, which means when it`s spring in the south, it`s autumn in the north.
These latest observations, reported in the May issue of the planetary science journal ‘Icarus’, are something of a surprise since changing seasons on Neptune have not been seen before, according to astronomer Lawrence Sromovsky of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
``Neptune has so far not made seasons very visible,`` Sromovsky said by telephone on Friday. But Hubble observations made from 1996 through 2002 show that bands of high clouds have been getting wider and brighter.
This tallies with ground-based observations that have shown the same trend since 1980, Sromovsky said.
Neptune, the eighth planet from the Sun, is known for its weird weather in any case, with ferocious storms and winds gusting to 1,448 km an hour. It is 30 times Earth`s distance from the Sun, which means the Sun is about 900 times weaker on Neptune – and might have been thought to be too weak to create seasonal change.
Bureau Report
These latest observations, reported in the May issue of the planetary science journal ‘Icarus’, are something of a surprise since changing seasons on Neptune have not been seen before, according to astronomer Lawrence Sromovsky of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
``Neptune has so far not made seasons very visible,`` Sromovsky said by telephone on Friday. But Hubble observations made from 1996 through 2002 show that bands of high clouds have been getting wider and brighter.
This tallies with ground-based observations that have shown the same trend since 1980, Sromovsky said.
Neptune, the eighth planet from the Sun, is known for its weird weather in any case, with ferocious storms and winds gusting to 1,448 km an hour. It is 30 times Earth`s distance from the Sun, which means the Sun is about 900 times weaker on Neptune – and might have been thought to be too weak to create seasonal change.
Bureau Report