The NASA undertaking has brought together scientists from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC). Uranus and Neptune are two of the most mysterious and least explored planets in the solar system. NASA wants to change this by developing a new generation of “net flux radiometer” instruments. The instrument measures the heating and cooling, which occurs inside of a planet’s atmosphere.
But the instrument can also be used to study how solar influences have an impact on the planets.
NASA said in a statement: “The next-generation radiometer is specifically being developed to study the atmosphere or Uranus or Neptune but could be used on any target with an atmosphere.
“Of all the planets in the solar system, only Uranus and Neptune – called ice giants because they are composed mostly of ices – remain relatively unexplored.
“While Voyager 2 snapped photos of the seventh and eighth planets, it did not obtain the breathtaking details that the Galileo and Cassini missions gathered about Jupiter and Saturn.
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“Even far-flung Pluto scored a close-up look with the New Horizons mission in 2015.”
According to Shahid Aslam, who is leading the team behind NASA’s new instrument, a lot remains to be learned about the icy planets.
Scientists are confident both planets have slush-like mantle mixed from water, methane ices and ammonia.
The atmospheres, on the other hand, are comprised of molecular hydrogen, helium and methane gas.
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NASA said: “As temperatures fall below -333.7 degrees Fahrenheit, ammonia gas freezes into ice crystals and drops out of the atmospheres of both planets. Methane – a blue-coloured gas – becomes dominant.
“While atmospheric-methane content is similar in both planets, they look different.
“Uranus appears as a hazy blue-green, while Neptune takes on a much deeper colour blue.”
Some other fact in Neptune’s atmosphere is believed to contribute to its deep blue colour.
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NASA also believes Uranus lacks any internal source of heat.
Neptune, meanwhile, appears to radiate as much energy as it receives from the Sun.
The US space agency said this gives the planet an “active, dynamic atmosphere”.
However, until NASA can send dedicated probes to the ice saints, their processes driving the planets’ atmospherics will remain elusive.
