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> Jupiter, Saturn and Neptune all radiate ~2x the heat they receive from the Sun. As I've said elsewhere, this is most surprising for Neptune, but the fact tha
by areoform 5y ago
> Jupiter, Saturn and Neptune all radiate ~2x the heat they receive from the Sun.
As I've said elsewhere, this is most surprising for Neptune, but the fact that these bodies radiate this much heat is a clue that something more is going on.
The primordial heat hypothesis doesn't hold up, as Uranus was formed around the same time as Neptune and its energy balance is 1.05. If the comparison is indeed accurate, then the question remains what is making these planetary bodies so hot? Neptune especially.
Here are the energy balances of each to our best estimates,
Jupiter, 2.132 ± 0.051 [current estimate, older estimate was, 1.668 ± 0.085] (source, https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-018-06107-2#Sec2 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-018-06107-2#Sec2)
Saturn, 1.78 ± 0.09 (source, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/0019103583901471 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/001910... )
Neptune 2.61 ± 0.28 (source, https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1029/91JA01087 https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1029/91JA... )
My tweets on the topic, https://twitter.com/_areoform/status/1373376028861734918 https://twitter.com/_areoform/status/1373376028861734918
- Tuna-Fish 5y ago> as Uranus was formed around the same time as Neptune [citation needed] There is clearly an unexplained anomaly vis-a-vis Uranus and the other giant planets. But the closer you look at them, the more weird Uranus appears. It would be amazing if it turned out to be a much older planet captured by our solar system. (That would certainly explain the weirdo rotation...)
- areoform 5y agoHere you go! https://books.google.com/books?id=RaJdy3_VINQC&pg=PA224&lpg=PA224&dq=planet+neptune+heat+flow&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=planet%20neptune%20heat%20flow&f=false https://books.google.com/books?id=RaJdy3_VINQC&pg=PA224&lpg=... https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/0004-637X/789/1/69 https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/0004-637X/789/1/6... http://www.psrd.hawaii.edu/Aug01/bombardment.html http://www.psrd.hawaii.edu/Aug01/bombardment.html For me the anomaly is the heat of these planets, and the physical processes this suggests. I suspect that our current explanations are only partial and that a great discovery lies somewhere here.
- actually_a_dog 5y agoUranus got knocked over by getting hit really hard, a bunch of times: https://www.space.com/13231-planet-uranus-knocked-sideways-impacts.html https://www.space.com/13231-planet-uranus-knocked-sideways-i...
- TheSpiceIsLife 5y agoDo we know if any exoplanet gas giants are similar in this regard? If an observer from a distant star, say any of the stars we've discovered planets around, were observing our solar system, would the gas giants stand out because of this, or are they still too close as to be out-shone by Sol?