A new study has “returned” the true colors of two frigid planets in the Solar System, suggesting that they may have originated as perfect twins.
The research team, led by planetary physicist Patrick Irwin from the University of Oxford (UK), utilized the latest images from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope and ESA’s Very Large Telescope to filter the most accurate images of the two planets.
These are two gigantic worlds with quite similar names: Uranus and Neptune.
The upper row displays the “traditional” images of the planets named Uranus (left) and Neptune, while the lower row shows the true images of the duo – (Photo: UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD/BBC)
Residing in the distant and dark regions of the Solar System, the images we have long seen of these two planets have actually been color-adjusted based on the physical parameters that observational instruments have recorded.
In other words, these are simulations of their appearance when fully illuminated by the Sun, similar to how our Earth is lit.
According to Space.com, in the images captured by the Voyager 2 spacecraft, the planet named Neptune appears in deep blue, while Uranus is depicted in a pastel blue.
The new research findings indicate that scientists may have made some errors while trying to identify the true colors of the two planets using techniques from the previous century.
They discovered that Neptune had undergone the most adjustments, as the light data from the initial images was heavily modified to display clouds, bands, and winds, resulting in an artificially deep blue color.
Meanwhile, Uranus would appear slightly whiter when clearly illuminated due to its slow-moving atmosphere.
When the colors were adjusted back to their “original” state, another startling fact was revealed: The two planets are nearly identical. Only upon close inspection can one see that Uranus is slightly lighter in color.
This also hints at a previously proposed hypothesis: the Solar System produced fairly similar planets before they evolved and became too different.
In this context, Venus and Earth are considered a perfect ancient twin pair, both rocky planets with not much size difference and located within the “habitable zone.”
Meanwhile, in that distant realm, the gas giants Uranus and Neptune were born in the same way and are identical to each other.
