Member-only story
Neptune’s Temperature Has Been Unexpectedly Changing
A study published in The Planetary Science Journal on April 11th, 2022 sheds light on unexpected temperature changes on Neptune. The study reviewed infrared images from multiple ground-based telescopes from the past two decades and found that temperatures are plummeting during the southern hemisphere’s summer.
Ever since Neptune’s southern hemispheres' summer began nearly 20 years ago, atmospheric temperatures in the region have decreased instead of increasing, and astronomers aren’t sure why. Each season on Neptune takes around 40 years, as the planet’s orbit around the Sun takes about 165 Earth years. Neptune’s southern hemisphere has been experiencing summer since 2005.
Researchers working on the study compiled infrared images of Neptune taken from a variety of ground-based telescopes taken between 2003 and 2020. The team initially expected to see the temperature increase as the southern hemisphere entered summer, so they were shocked when temperatures decreased instead.
The infrared images revealed that the atmospheric temperature of Neptune’s southern hemisphere had dropped by 14.4 degrees Fahrenheit (8 degrees Celsius) between 2003 and 2018. This change puzzled researchers not just because it was cooling instead of heating, but also because it happened so rapidly.
