 |
Explorations an Introduction to Astronomy Thomas T. Arny | ||||||||
|
|
Instructor
Resources |
||||||||
|
|||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||
Chapter
Images
Chapter 9, Figure 18
Figure
9.18
Sketch illustrating
why Uranus is blue. Methane absorbs red light, removing the red wavelengths
from the sunlight that falls on the planet. The surviving light—
now missing its red colors—is therefore predominantly blue. As that light
scatters off cloud particles in the Uranian atmosphere and returns to space,
it gives the planet its blue color.
