Neptune might not be blue. In fact, it is said that reality is not as they paint it, that apples are not green, that the sky is not blue and that the colors of the planets change. If so, why is it?
Experts recognize that a good number of planets can be recognized with the naked eye, but the help of a telescope or some good ones binoculars They will serve to not only differentiate them, but also discover many of their characteristics, including their .
Although it is difficult to admit it, things are not as they are painted, and we are not referring to the saying that not everything that glitters is gold or the lion is not as they paint it., but some planets are actually quite colorful. Others have a rock surface that is almost completely gray, and many times in order to make people appreciate those details the images are manipulated.
It is generally a way of exaggerating subtle differences that human eyes are not good at seeing unaided.
Neptune, Mars and other planets, what color are they?
The colors that televisions or digital media show us do not really have to be those that correspond to the planets. What we see is a map of the different chemical compositions of the materials on its surface, what is that like?
First you have to understand how the eye and the telescopic lens work.
The first thing we must keep in mind is that when we look at the colors of the planets in our Solar System, we see them as a certain color depending on two things: the composition of their surface and the presence, thickness and composition of their atmosphere. Thus, to see the color of the planet we would need look at it through a space telescope.
A spacecraft camera rarely sees colors the same way the human eye does. For example, the red, green, and blue components are usually recorded separately, transmitted to Earth as three separate black-and-white images, and combined in color for display purposes only. The way the colors appear will surely be at least subtly different from the way your eyes would perceive the same view, and the way it has been captured.
What’s more, the colors in an image do not necessarily correspond to the original colors, even if no attempt has been made to exaggerate them. In principle, a spacecraft camera can record anywhere in the light spectrum. When one of the channels is beyond the visible range, such as in the ultraviolet, we still have to use red, green, or blue to display it.
So what are the colors of the planets?
It is not so simple to associate the planets with a certain color. Regarding the extrasolar planets, their color has not yet been seen, while according to NASA, these are the colors of each of the planets in the Solar System:
- Mercury: grey
- Venus: brown and gray
- Land: blue, brown, green and white
- Mars: red, brown and tan
- Jupiter: brown, orange and tan
- Saturn: gold, brown and blue-gray
- Uranus: Greenish blue
- Neptune: Blue
But this is what is known about some planets:
Jupiter’s Propensity to strong colors is shared by its innermost large moon, Io. Here, frequent explosive volcanic eruptions bathe the ground in sulfur and sulfur dioxide, making the globe look like a yellow pizza, dotted with black “olives” that are actually patches of lava that are too fresh to have yet acquired a stain. yellow.
Saturn It has duller colors than Jupiter, despite having a similar atmosphere. Its natural color is only vaguely yellow; Any image you see of him with a deep color is either a false color or an exaggerated color.
Uranus and Neptune They are also hidden by an immensely deep atmosphere. To our eyes, Uranus appears naturally green and Neptune blue, because the tops of its condensed methane clouds are seen through a great depth of methane gas that filters out the red component of sunlight, so that only green light appears. blue reaches to the bottom.
He and the dust has largely converted to iron oxide. Consequently, Mars It looks red to the naked eye if you see it in the sky, it looks red from orbit, and it looks red when seen by rovers on Earth.
Venus It is shrouded in blindingly white clouds and only a handful of Soviet landers have visited its surface. The dense clouds only allow a dull, reddish glow to reach the ground, making everything appear orange.
Mercury It’s a world without air made of dark, drab gray rock with just a touch of red. It reflects only about 7 percent of the sunlight that falls on it, which is only a little more than carbon would reflect, but it is three times closer to the Sun than Earth, where the intense sunlight would make it look quite Bright even without adjusting the light.