Sun activity is behind Neptune vanishing clouds.
( (Credits: NASA, ESA, Erandi Chavez (UC Berkeley), Imke de Pater (UC Berkeley)))Astronomers have unveiled a connection between Neptune's diminishing clouds and the escalating activity of the Sun as it nears its anticipated solar cycle, projected for 2025.
Currently within Solar Cycle 25, the Sun resides in an active phase of its 11-year solar weather cycle. This cycle witnesses the Sun's magnetic field inverting every 11 years, akin to the twists of a ball of yarn. This transformation is observable through the increased occurrence of sunspots and heightened solar flare activity.
As this cycle progresses, the Sun's volatile behaviour culminates in a peak, followed by the breakdown and reversal of its magnetic field's polarity. The Sun then settles into a minimum state before embarking on a fresh cycle.
The affiliation between Neptune and solar activity surprises planetary scientists due to Neptune's status as the outermost major planet within the solar system. Receiving a mere 0.1 per cent of the sunlight intensity that Earth enjoys, Neptune's global cloud formations seem to be steered by solar activity, instead of its four approximately 40-year-long seasons.
Led by the University of California (UC) Berkeley, the team uncovered the correlation between the solar cycle and Neptune's cloud patterns by scrutinising 2.5 cycles of cloud activity across 29 years of Neptunian observations.
During this timeframe, the planet's reflectivity intensified in 2002, waned in 2007, brightened in 2015, and plunged to its darkest observed point in 2020, coinciding with the vanishing of most clouds.
Presently, Neptune presents minimal cloud coverage, barring a few clouds lingering above the planet's southern pole, as elucidated in the study published in the journal Icarus.
Imke de Pater, a professor of astronomy at UC Berkeley, remarked, "I was taken aback by the rapid disappearance of clouds on Neptune. We essentially witnessed cloud activity decrease within a few months."
"Even now, four years later, the most recent images we captured this June still depict the clouds not having returned to their prior levels," stated study lead Erandi Chavez, who undertook the research as an undergraduate astronomy student at UC Berkeley and is now a graduate student at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard-Smithsonian (CfA).
Chavez and her team tracked Neptune's progression through images from the Keck Observatory between 2002 and 2022, archival data from the Hubble Space Telescope dating back to 1994, and data from the Lick Observatory in 2018 and 2019.
These observations unveil an intriguing pattern between Neptune's alterations in cloud cover and the solar cycle's phases.
Amidst solar turbulence, intensified ultraviolet (UV) radiation pervades the solar system. The team noticed that two years after the solar cycle peaks, a heightened number of clouds manifest on Neptune. Furthermore, they established a positive correlation between the number of clouds and the ice giant's luminance, stemming from sunlight reflection.
"These exceptional data provide the most robust evidence yet of the association between Neptune's cloud cover and the Sun's cycle," de Pater affirmed. "Our findings corroborate the theory that the Sun's UV rays, when potent enough, might be triggering a photochemical reaction that engenders Neptune’s clouds.
**
The above article has been published from a wire agency with minimal modifications to the headline and text.
https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMidmh0dHBzOi8vd2VhdGhlci5jb20vZW4tSU4vaW5kaWEvc3BhY2UvbmV3cy8yMDIzLTA4LTE5LXNvbGFyLWN5Y2xlLXJldmVhbHMtc3VycHJpc2luZy1saW5rLXRvLW5lcHR1bmVzLXZhbmlzaGluZy1jbG91ZHPSAQA?oc=5
2023-08-19 05:08:09Z
CBMidmh0dHBzOi8vd2VhdGhlci5jb20vZW4tSU4vaW5kaWEvc3BhY2UvbmV3cy8yMDIzLTA4LTE5LXNvbGFyLWN5Y2xlLXJldmVhbHMtc3VycHJpc2luZy1saW5rLXRvLW5lcHR1bmVzLXZhbmlzaGluZy1jbG91ZHPSAQA
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Solar Cycle Reveals Surprising Link to Neptune's Cloud Patterns | Weather.com - The Weather Channel"
Post a Comment