{"id":636607,"date":"2026-10-20T19:54:14","date_gmt":"2026-10-20T19:54:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/636607\/"},"modified":"2026-10-20T19:54:14","modified_gmt":"2026-10-20T19:54:14","slug":"uranus-and-neptune-look-like-twins-scientists-now-think-its-a-coincidence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/636607\/","title":{"rendered":"Uranus and Neptune Look Like Twins. Scientists Now Think It\u2019s a Coincidence"},"content":{"rendered":"

Despite the iconic documentary<\/a>, Uranus and Neptune are arguably the real \u201cblue planets\u201d in our solar system. And their visual similarities in part convinced astronomers that they were evolutionary and chemical twins\u2014but looks can deceive, as a new study has found.<\/p>\n

In short, the similarities we observe today between Uranus and Neptune may be a coincidence, according to research published in Astronomy & Astrophysics<\/a>. Studying recent measurements of carbon monoxide revealed that Neptune\u2019s deep atmosphere has more oxygen than that of Uranus. Using this information, the team ran models to track regions of the protoplanetary disk\u2014a rotating \u201cplatter<\/a>\u201d of gas and dust that forms planets\u2014that birthed Uranus and Neptune. Surprisingly, the analysis strongly suggested that Uranus and Neptune weren\u2019t from the same section of the protoplanetary disk, which would also give them different chemical origins.<\/p>\n

\u201cUranus and Neptune may resemble twins today, but their chemistry is telling us that they are more like cousins with very different histories,\u201d Olivier Mousis, the study\u2019s co-author and a planetary scientist at the Southwest Research Institute, said in a statement<\/a>. So their similarities today actually point to a \u201cnoteworthy coincidence,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

The blue planet(s) <\/p>\n

The team explained in the paper that exoplanets resembling Uranus and Neptune \u201cdominate the exoplanet population.\u201d For astronomers, this means that Uranus and Neptune serve as the best (local) reference sheet for studying foreign planetary systems. But nature hasn\u2019t been so generous in giving up its secrets. According to the paper, Uranus and Neptune have long heliocentric distances and low temperatures, which \u201cseverely limit\u201d astronomers\u2019 ability to study them. The ice giants are also enveloped in thick clouds and gases that not even the best radio telescopes can reliably pierce through, the team added.<\/p>\n

Then again, scientists always find some way to get around these natural barriers. In this case, Mousis and colleagues searched for \u201cchemical tracers [that] allow us to probe the conditions hidden beneath their visible clouds,\u201d as he explained in the statement. The team settled on carbon monoxide (CO), which is abundant in the upper troposphere of many planets, Mousis added. And recent measurements have \u201cunambiguously\u201d detected CO in the tropospheres of Uranus and Neptune, according to the study.<\/p>\n

\u201cUsing this data, we can model the chemical evolution of the protoplanetary disk and the origins of its material,\u201d he went on. Specifically, from the CO measurements, the team derived a set of possible ratios of oxygen, hydrogen, and carbon in the planets\u2019 deep atmospheres, then ran a model to simulate how different volatile compounds from the protoplanetary disk evolved to form the planets as we observe them today.<\/p>\n

Two planets, two histories <\/p>\n

The analysis strongly suggested that Neptune\u2019s \u201cbuilding blocks\u201d were actually closer to the young Sun than Uranus and later migrated outward, according to Mousis. It\u2019s \u201cdifficult to reconcile\u201d Neptune\u2019s chemistry with the idea that it came from the same \u201creservoir of cosmic materials as Uranus,\u201d he added. It makes more sense to assume that the protoplanetary disk essentially tossed Neptune\u2019s building blocks a good distance away from where they first emerged, and these blocks eventually accreted into the ice giant as we see it today.<\/p>\n

\"UranusThis figure explains where the building blocks for Uranus and Neptune may have formed in the protoplanetary disk orbiting the young Sun. Credit: Southwest Research Institute <\/p>\n

\u201cIn short, two superficially similar worlds may have reached their present locations and formations through two very distinct evolutionary paths,\u201d Mousis said.<\/p>\n

That said, as the team admitted in the paper, its biggest limitation is arguably the most obvious one: we don\u2019t have any in situ (on site) measurements of Uranus and Neptune\u2019s atmospheres. While the modeling data may be as convincing as scientists can make them, we won\u2019t really know for certain until we actually get some real samples\u2014which will hopefully come if missions like NASA\u2019s Uranus Orbiter and Probe<\/a> manage to launch.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur findings have implications beyond Neptune and Uranus and even far beyond our solar system,\u201d Mousis said. \u201cSimilarly sized planets are common around other stars, which is why Uranus and Neptune are essential benchmarks for understanding how planets form and evolve throughout the galaxy.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Despite the iconic documentary, Uranus and Neptune are arguably the real \u201cblue planets\u201d in our solar system. And…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":636608,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[6249,111,139,69,8863,147,6250],"class_list":["post-636607","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-neptune","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-planetary-science","tag-science","tag-uranus"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/636607","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=636607"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/636607\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/636608"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=636607"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=636607"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=636607"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}