Why Did Neptune's Clouds Disappear? Scientists Find Surprising Solar Link
Neptune's clouds disappeared and scientists think they know why that happened. For the first time in nearly 30 years, Neptune has no clouds. Scientists studied the detailed images of Neptune between the years 1994 and 2022, finding a strange pattern that started in 2019.
The cloud coverage appeared to start fading around the planet's mid-latitudes. Eventually, all clouds around Neptune completely vanished, Space.com reported.
What happened to Neptune's clouds?
Since 2019, scientists could see only one patch of clouds near the planet's south pole. "I was surprised by how quickly clouds disappeared on Neptune," Imke de Pater, an emeritus professor of astronomy at the University of California, Berkeley and senior author of the study, said in a statement. "We essentially saw cloud activity drop within a few months."
To further study Neptune's appearance, the team analysed images taken from Keck Observatory between 2002 and 2022, Hubble Space Telescope archival observations beginning 1994, and data from the Lick Observatory in California between 2018 and 2019.
They noted that Neptune's clouds are deeply linked to how our Sun behaves during its 11-year-long activity cycle, claiming that the pattern of clouds matched it.
Also read:?Neptune's Faint Rings Captured In Detail For First Time By James Webb Telescope
When the Sun is most active, more clouds begin to form on Neptune. When it is least active, Neptune's clouds disappear, a New Scientist report claimed.
"The link between Neptune and solar activity is surprising to planetary scientists because Neptune is our solar system's farthest major planet and receives sunlight with about 0.1% of the intensity Earth receives. Yet Neptune's global cloudy weather seems to be driven by solar activity, and not the planet's four seasons, which each last approximately 40 years," NASA wrote in a release.
Also read:?Why Does It Rain Diamonds On Neptune And Uranus?
"These remarkable data give us the strongest evidence yet that Neptune's cloud cover correlates with the Sun's cycle," said de Pater. "Our findings support the theory that the Sun's UV rays, when strong enough, maybe triggering a photochemical reaction that produces Neptune's clouds."
What do you think about Neptune's disappearing clouds? Let us know in the comments below.?For more in the world of?technology?and?science, keep reading?Indiatimes.com.? ??
