The planets Uranus and Neptune have a lot in common, yet they’re different colors. Why? Astronomers may now have the clues. Both planets have a layer of concentrated haze, but new research suggests Uranus (first image) has a thicker layer, "whitening" its appearance more than Neptune’s. If there were no haze in the atmospheres of Neptune and Uranus, both would appear almost equally blue. An international team led by Patrick Irwin, Professor of Planetary Physics at Oxford University, made this conclusion, and developed a model to describe aerosol layers in the atmospheres of Neptune and Uranus. They suspect that methane ice condenses onto the particles in the middle layer of both planets, creating a shower of methane snow. Neptune is more efficient at churning up these particles in its turbulent atmosphere, removing most of the haze.
The above images were taken by our Voyager 2 spacecraft during flybys in 1986 and 1989, respectively. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech #Uranus#Neptune#Planets#Atmosphere#Blue#Haze#Space#Astronomy#NASA