Uranus and Neptune both have the blues, but Uranus is a little less blue than its solar system neighbor. An international team of researchers investigated …
Uranus and Neptune both have the blues, but Uranus is a little less blue than its solar system neighbor. An international team of researchers investigated the atmospheres of the two ice giant planets that seem like they should look like twins and discovered why they wear different hues of blue. In visible light (what we humans see), Neptune is a more intense blue than Uranus. What’s weird is how similar the planets are to each other in terms of size, mass and the gases in their atmospheres. So why aren’t they the same color? Patrick Irwin, professor of planetary physics at the University of Oxford, is the lead author of the study on the planetary hues published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets last week.
