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In contrast to the strongly seasonal atmosphere of Uranus, which can be featureless for long periods of time, Neptune's atmosphere has active and consistently visible weather patterns. At the time of the Voyager 2 flyby in 1989, the planet's southern hemisphere had a Great Dark Spot comparable to the Great Red Spot on Jupiter.
Neptune, for example, has an atmosphere made of hydrogen and helium (with just a tinge of methane), and it doesn’t really have a surface—or, at least, not what we think of as a surface.
Ice giants have distinctly different interior compositions from gas giants. The Solar System's ice giants, Uranus and Neptune, have a hydrogen-rich atmosphere that extends from the cloud tops down to about 80% (Uranus) or 85% (Neptune) of their radius. Below this, they are predominantly "icy", i.e. consisting mostly of water, methane, and ammonia.
Triton's geology is vigorous, and has been and continues to be influenced by its unusual history of capture, high internal heat, and its thin but significant atmosphere. Nearly nothing was known of Triton's geology until the Voyager 2 spacecraft flew by the Neptune system in 1989, marking the first and only up-close observations of the moon as ...
Neptune and Uranus are now referred to as ice giants. Lacking well-defined solid surfaces, they are primarily composed of gases and liquids. Their constituent compounds were solids when they were primarily incorporated into the planets during their formation, either directly in the form of ice or trapped in water ice.
Neptune has long been known to have white clouds circling it, but images of the furthest planet in the solar system have shown this changing over time - the most recent image, taken by the Hubble ...
English: Diagram of the planet Neptune. Upper atmosphere, top clouds. Atmosphere consisting of hydrogen, helium, and methane gas. Mantle consisting of water, ammonia, and methane ices. Core consisting of rock (silicates and nickel-iron).
Telescope data may have helped researchers figure out why. Four years ago, astronomers noticed the abundant clouds on Neptune had largely disappeared. Telescope data may have helped researchers ...