The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) often captures stunning images of our universe that amaze space enthusiasts. NASA’s social media accounts are gold for those who love educational videos and fun pictures of Earth and space. The agency’s Voyager 2 spacecraft shared a photo of Neptune’s south pole in its latest post. The image shows Neptune’s south pole. NASA aptly described the image as “the curve at the bottom of the image is like a smile. From left to right, the planet changes color from blue to pale yellow.”
The space agency wrote on Instagram: “Our Voyager 2 spacecraft took this image of Neptune’s south pole as it flew past the planet in 1989. Here’s an interesting fact about Neptune’s south pole: It’s about 10 degrees Celsius (18 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than the rest of the planet.”
Voyager 2 has been in operation since 1977 and is the only spacecraft to visit Uranus and Neptune, NASA said. As Voyager 2 traveled through the outer solar system, it visited four giant planets and discovered and photographed many of the planets’ moons.
“In January 2018, Voyager 2 reached interstellar space. The interstellar region is filled with material ejected millions of years ago by the deaths of nearby stars. Voyager 1’s twin spacecraft has been in interstellar space since August 2012. Now nothing has flown by Earth.” “In their current mission, the Voyager Interstellar Mission, these two explorers will explore the edge of the Sun’s domain.”.
Astronomers have previously seen a mysterious dark spot in Neptune’s atmosphere for the first time from Earth. Observations were made using the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile.
The astronomers also found an unexpected bright spot that was close to the dark side.
The space-based observatory says it’s the first time Neptune’s dark spot has been seen using the Neptune Telescope. The new observations were published in the journal Nature Astronomy.