Near infrared imaging of the outer planets

Details Near infrared imaging of the outer planets Near infrared imaging of the outer planets

Oct 1991

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1991plas.rept..172m&link_type=abstract

In NASA, Washington, Reports of Planetary Astronomy, 1991 p 172 (SEE N92-12792 03-89)

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Gas Giant Planets, Infrared Astronomy, Infrared Imagery, Near Infrared Radiation, Neptune Satellites, Aerosols, Gravitational Fields, High Altitude, Methane, Solar System, Sunlight

Scientific paper

In the last year we have continued our program of near infrared imaging of the outer planets of the solar system. Uranus is virtually invisible at 2.3 microns, showing that the methane is an effective absorber of the incident sunlight and that there is very little aerosol content in the upper atmosphere. On the other hand, Neptune shows a haze present over the entire Northern Hemisphere at 2.3 microns. This leads to the inference that there is an aerosol layer at a high altitude. We have recovered the Neptune satellite, 1989 N1, which was first discovered in Voyager images. The satellite is exceedingly faint in the near infrared, and was detectable only because the planet itself was comparatively faint at this wavelength. Observations of this satellite, coupled with the Voyager images, permit us to substantially refine the satellite's orbit, and hence carefully probe the gravitational field of Neptune.

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