Scientists from Oxford University have made the wild discovery that some of our solar system’s furthest planets are NOT the colours we had previously thought them to be, as it turns out Neptune is actually similar in hue to Uranus. Begging the question: when it comes to the blueness of planets, is Uranus as deep as Neptune?
Alright class, settle down. Yes, today we are going to be talking about the gas giant Uranus, and it’s fellow planet Neptune, so let’s get all the jokes out of the way first. I don’t wanna hear any giggles as we probe into this very serious planetary report.
This is not up for discussion. I don’t wanna hear any butts. Now be serious.
First let’s think to ourselves, how would you typically imagine Uranus?
No doubt you’re familiar with it’s impressive size and it’s general roundness, but what colour do you think it is?
Unless you’ve got the right type of mirrors, it might have been a while since you’ve properly inspected Uranus.
Fortunately, other people are regularly checking out Uranus out, and have always concluded that it has been rather pale greenish blue. Neptune on the other hand, has typically been depicted as a much deeper and richer blue.
However according to recent discoveries, this may not be the case!
Using a combination of data from the Hubble telescope, and the Very Large Telescope (that’s its actual name) in Chile, Oxford’s Professor of Planetary Physics Patrick Irwin has shared that the two may both actually be the same pale blue colour.
“We found that the colours of Uranus and Neptune were actually remarkably similar, with Neptune appearing only slightly bluer,” wrote Irwin.
Previous estimates of Neptune’s colour come from the data from the Voyager 2 probe which passed by the planets in the late 80s. However new data from updated instruments allowed for astronomers to create images that “determine unambiguously the actual colour that the human eye would perceive for Uranus and Neptune.”
The professor explained that Neptune’s newly coordinated colour palette is due to the “difference in opacity of a layer of haze and methane ice” when compared to old data.
And I’ll be the first to say it: kind of a downgrade. Bring back the OG colour Neptune. You were hot shit the way you were before.
So in summary, no Uranus has not been bleached recently. And neither has Neptune, despite appearances.
And they don’t need to, no matter what Hollywood’s bonkers beauty standards say.
