After conducting initial research, the main question I have is what would the color of the surface (or rather inside) of Neptune would look like. I'm unsure whether the blue would carry on through to the interior of the planet, since the methane gas clouds is responsible for the blue, supposedly there's ice and an unknown substance as well that could change the color.
Neptune
Neptune is a gas giant planet, so it
doesn’t have a solid surface. The blue-green ball that we see in photographs of
Neptune is really the top of the clouds on Neptune. If you could dive down
beneath the surface of Neptune, you would find an interior with increasing
temperatures and pressures right down to the rocky core at the center.
So, we’re clear that the surface of
Neptune isn’t solid. There’s no standing on Neptune. That said, the “surface of
Neptune” that we see is one the most active and dynamic places in the Solar
System. For some reason, that astronomers haven’t figured out, the interior of
Neptune is unusually hot. Even though Neptune is much further from the Sun than
Uranus and receives 40% less sunlight, its surface temperature is about the
same. In fact, Neptune gives off 2.6 times more energy than it takes in from
the Sun. Even without the Sun, Neptune glows.
This high amount of interior heat
matched with the coldness of space creates a huge temperature difference. And
this sets the winds blasting around Neptune. Maximum wind speeds on Jupiter can
be more than 500 km/hour. That’s twice the speed of the strongest hurricanes on
Earth. But that’s nothing compared to Neptune. Astronomers have calculated
winds blasting across the surface of Neptune at 2,100 km/hour.
When NASA’s Voyager 2 spacecraft
visited Neptune in 1989, it also discovered the planet’s Great Dark Spot, a
huge storm like Jupiter’s Great Red Spot. But unlike Jupiter, the Dark Spot
didn’t seem to be very stable, and had already disappeared by 1994 when the
Hubble Space Telescope tried to locate it.
Deep down inside Neptune, the planet
might have a solid surface. At the very core of Neptune is thought to be a
region of rock with roughly the mass of the Earth. But temperatures at this
region would be thousands of degrees; hot enough to melt rock. And the pressure
from the weight of all the atmosphere would be crushing. There would be no way
to walk around on the “surface of Neptune”.
The interior is presumed to contain
a rocky core with an icy mantle topped by a deep layer of liquid hydrogen.
Voyager 2's instruments detected a complex magnetic field. Like Uranus, the
field is tipped with respect to the axis of rotation and offset from the center
(the tilt is 50 degrees for Neptune, compared with 60 degrees for Uranus).
However, the field is somewhat weaker than for Uranus. As for Uranus, it is speculated that this magnetic field my originate in a conducting shell not far below the clouds, rather than deep in the interior as for Jupiter or the Earth. In that case, the conducting material would not be metallic hydrogen, as for Jupiter, or iron and nickel, as for the Earth. As noted earlier for Uranus, a mixture of water, methane, and ammonia under the right pressure could be responsible.
http://csep10.phys.utk.edu/astr161/lect/neptune/surface.html
Neptune's blue appearance comes from the layer of methane
gas that sits above the clouds. Methane absorbs red light, so only the bluish
colors show up when viewing the planet.
Much is still unknown about Neptune, because the strong pressure makes it impossible for us to land on the planet. It is thought that there is an ocean of really hot water on Neptune's surface. The planet's pressure makes it impossible for the water to boil away.
The only spacecraft to visit Neptune was the Voyager 2 in 1989. Voyager confirmed that Neptune's atmosphere was very cold and very windy. In fact, the surface of Neptune reaches 200 degrees below zero! Regardless of the frigid temperatures, Neptune's core remains very warm. Neptune actually gives off more heat than it receives from the Sun.
Much is still unknown about Neptune, because the strong pressure makes it impossible for us to land on the planet. It is thought that there is an ocean of really hot water on Neptune's surface. The planet's pressure makes it impossible for the water to boil away.
The only spacecraft to visit Neptune was the Voyager 2 in 1989. Voyager confirmed that Neptune's atmosphere was very cold and very windy. In fact, the surface of Neptune reaches 200 degrees below zero! Regardless of the frigid temperatures, Neptune's core remains very warm. Neptune actually gives off more heat than it receives from the Sun.
Yahoo Answers
Chemistry
- According to the Smithsonian Museum, hydrogen, helium
and methane dominate Neptune's ambiguous surface. At near-surface
conditions, these chemicals exist as gases. Frozen methane forms clouds
that are visible from space, just like frozen water does on Earth. The
Great Dark Spot storm system
is a distinguishing surface feature on Neptune. The storm was a
hurricane-like feature similar to Jupiter's Great Red Spot. The storm's
dark feature offers a glimpse into the deeper layers of Neptune's
atmosphere. As one travels down into the giant planet, pressure and
internal heat transform the hydrogen and methane gases into a compressed
fluid.
Planets get their color from what they are made of -- their
composition. Both Uranus and Neptune get their blue-green color from methane,
but Neptune is a more vivid and brighter blue, which points to Neptune having
an unknown component.
Neptune does not have a solid surface, but its atmosphere
(made up mostly of hydrogen, helium and methane) extends to great depths,
gradually merging into water and other melted ices over a heavier,
approximately Earth-size solid core.
Neptune's atmosphere extends to great depths, gradually
merging into water and other melted ices over a heavier, approximately
Earth-size solid core. Neptune's blue color is the result of methane in the
atmosphere. Uranus' blue-green color is also the result of atmospheric methane,
but Neptune is a more vivid, brighter blue, so there must be an unknown
component that causes the more intense color.
