In this May, the cold air on the mainland continues, and many provinces in the north and south have experienced a feeling of spring cold, which has made many netizens complain: Isn't it said that the world is warming? Why is it still so cold? Large-scale changes in temperature occur not only on Earth, but also on other planets in the solar system , as evidenced by NASA 's measurements pointing to an increase in the sublimation of the South Pole ice sheet on Mars , leading to speculation that Mars is undergoing global warming , which once attracted a lot of attention, and current research shows that Mars has been more than 100,000 years old during a warm interglacial period.
Another planet in the solar system has also been found to have changed the temperature of the atmosphere - recently, scientists analyzed the data and pointed out abnormal changes in the temperature of the atmosphere on Neptune. After Neptune's southern hemisphere entered summer in 2003, the global average temperature dropped by 8 degrees Celsius over 15 years, until in 2018, when its Antarctic region began to warm sharply, rising by 11 degrees Celsius.
The image above shows the thermal imaging of Neptune by telescopes from 2006 to 2020. The first three images (2006, 2009, 2018) were taken by instruments on the Very Large Telescope of the European Southern Observatory ESO, and the 2020 images were taken by instruments on the Subaru Telescope of the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan. The scientists note that thermal imaging shows that the bright spots at Neptune's bottom in the 2018 and 2020 photos are getting "brighter," suggesting that Neptune's south pole appears to have warmed sharply over the past few years.
Like Earth, Neptune experiences seasonal changes as it orbits the Sun. However, due to its longer distance from the Sun and longer orbits, Neptune can last about 40 Earth years per season, and Neptune's orbit period is about 164.8 Earth years.
Neptune's southern hemisphere has been in summer since 2005, and scientists have tried to explore how temperatures change after the summer solstice in the southern hemisphere. By tracking the temperature of Neptune's atmosphere over a 17-year period. They found that Neptune's global temperature dropped sharply between 2003 and 2018, followed by a sharp warming at its south pole. The results have been published in The Planetary Science Journal.
Neptune is the farthest of the eight planets in the Solar System, the fourth largest in size, and the third most massive. As an ice giant, Neptune's atmosphere is dominated by hydrogen and helium, as well as trace amounts of methane. Methane in the atmosphere is part of what makes the planet blue. There are fairly active weather changes on Neptune — voyager 2 flew by Neptune in 1989, comparing the Great Dark Spot in the Southern Hemisphere to jupiter's Great Red Spot. The temperature at Neptune's cloud top is -218 degrees Celsius because it is the farthest from the Sun, on average one of the coldest regions of the Solar System, but Neptune's atmosphere has the highest wind speed in the Solar System, and Neptune's extremely violent storm system can reach supersonic speeds, even up to about 2100 km/h
Storms of large dark spots, small dark spots, and white clouds on Neptune
Although scientists had discovered warm polar vortexes at Neptune's south pole years ago, this massive rapid warming had never been observed before. The cause of this phenomenon is unknown to researchers who note temperature changes, and some researchers speculate that anomalous changes in Neptune's temperature may be due to changes in Neptune's stratospheric chemical composition, or a random weather pattern.
Some researchers even suspect that as one of the planets in the solar system, this temperature change in Neptune may be related to changes in the solar cycle, and in the next few years, researchers will obtain more observational data to explore the exact cause. Also as a member of the solar system, the Earth actually needs to continue to pay attention to the impact of solar changes on the Earth.