Scientists engaged in deep space exploration are surprised by a unusual event on the surface of Neptune: a dark spot that has only been detected twice in the entire history of mankind.
With data obtained by the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile, belonging to the European Southern Observatory (ESOfor its acronym in English), the experts are also surprised because they detected the spot through a terrestrial telescope.
The previous time that it had been seen similar was by means of the interstellar probe Voyager 2, in 1989, when the ship passed through this area of our Solar System. Scientists are puzzled by the presence of these spots; they don’t know what it is.
“Since the first discovery of a dark spot, I have always wondered what these elusive short-lived dark phenomena are,” explained Dr. Astronomy, Patrick Irwinteacher of the University of Oxford in the UK and principal investigator of the study, according to a review by infobae.
Neptune is the most distant planet in the stellar region we inhabit. Seeing its depths is complex, apart from its distance, due to the winds and storms that its icy atmosphere registers. So, seeing this smear generates alerts to understand if there is a possibility of the detection of a new element.
The science team that made the observations of the blob used a tool called MUSE (Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer), from ALMA, to split the sunlight reflected from Neptune and its blob into its colors or wavelengths, and obtain a 3D spectrum.
“I am absolutely delighted to have been able to not only make the first detection of a dark spot from the ground, but also to have been able to record such a reflection spectrum for the first time,” said Irwin.