New research reveals the composition of Uranus’ atmosphere

Over that period, the researchers saw the Antarctic region become darker as winter and the Arctic region brighter as summer approaches. By observing the planets at four different points apart for years, they were able to see how progressive changes in the seasons affected the planets. The top row shows how the planet appears when viewed in visible light.

The second row from the top is a pseudo-color image based on visible light and near-infrared observations. Green indicates less methane in the atmosphere than blue, while red indicates the absence of methane. Low levels of atmospheric methane at the poles (remembering it is on the planetary side rather than on the top and bottom) indicates that methane levels have little seasonal variation. In the image on the far left of this line, the green Antarctic moves into the darkness. In the other three images, you can see the lower methane region of the Arctic green. (The fourth column shows the same lack as methane variation, but no colour.)

But what about the third line? This shows an estimate of the abundance of aerosols that are not colored using visible light and infrared images. Light areas are cloudy, with a higher aerosol abundance, and dark areas are clearly less aerosol abundance. What’s noteworthy about these images is that it’s there teeth Seasonal variation. The Arctic was evident in the beginning of spring (2002), but became cloudy as summer progressed (2012-2022). Conversely, as autumn progresses into winter, the Antarctic region appears to have been cleared. The team believes these seasonal changes are evidence that sunlight changes the levels of aerosol mists on Earth.

The results of this study cover a long period of 20 years, but this still reflects only one period of seasonal changes in the Uranus atmosphere. The researchers will continue to observe Uranus as polar regions move into the news season to collect more data.

This story originally appeared Wired Japan Translated from Japan.