The rotation period of Neptune's upper atmosphere |
| |
| Authors: | RHamilton Brown Dale P Cruikshank Alan T Tokunaga |
| |
| Institution: | 1. HIG Planetary Geosciences, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, Hawaii 96822, USA;2. Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, Hawaii 96822, USA |
| |
| Abstract: | Significant variations in the near-infrared brightness of Neptune during July and August 1980 were observed. These observations show a well-defined, large-amplitude variation in Neptune's J-K color, with a period of 17.73 ± 0.1 hr and are interpreted as diurnal variations resulting from the 17.73-hr rotation period of the upper atmosphere of Neptune in the presence of inhomogeneous weather. These results qualitatively corroborate those of D. P. Cruikshank (1978, Astrophys. J.220, L57-L59) in an earlier study using similar techniques. In addition, variations were observed in the 5-μm spectral region which are in phase with the variations seen at shorter wavelengths. A new 5-μm measurement of Uranus is also reported. |
| |
| Keywords: | |
| 本文献已被 ScienceDirect 等数据库收录！ |
|
