Neptune has a newly discovered moon. What is he hiding?

When Voyager 2 passed Neptune in 1989, it revealed a dynamic world where winds were blowing and swirling in its atmosphere at speeds of up to 1,500 miles by the hour. Its blue atmosphere was also marked by a dark spot nicknamed the big dark spot. And while it's reminiscent of Jupiter's red spot, which has remained intact for hundreds of years, the spot of Neptune disappeared about five years later. In the years that followed, other imperfections came and went – each one a mystery.

As are the rings and moons of Neptune. From the Earth, the rings seem to be grouped into partial rings, or arcs, invisible elsewhere in the solar system and previously considered impossible (any material of this type orbiting the planet should extend into a continuous ring ). But the arcs of Neptune persist and astronomers can not say why.

And Neptune's biggest moon, Triton, is a singularity in more ways than one. It hosts geysers that release nitrogen five miles into the atmosphere and could be linked to a submarine ocean. Its surface is constantly redeveloped, evoking an active geology. And Triton might not even be from Neptune – but a refugee from the Kuiper Belt (this distant frozen fossil field that houses Pluto and the recently visited Ultima Thule).

Only a closer look could explain these mysteries.

The study of Neptune and Uranus could also have implications for our understanding of the thousands of detected worlds orbiting distant stars. The Kepler Space Telescope data suggest that ice giants could be the most common planet type in the galaxy.

"It's a bit ironic – the exoplanets of the Neptune type are far more common than the exoplanets of Jupiter, and yet we've studied Jupiter here in our own solar system in a more intensive way than we've ever had before." 39, Uranus or Neptune, "said Dr. Verbiscer. .

Astronomers, however, think the wind is turning. In a survey conducted every 10 years by a panel of experts that prioritizes NASA's funding priorities, a mission to the ice giants was ranked third after missions that were to return samples of Mars and visit the moon of Jupiter, Europa. Given that scientists have progressed on the first two, a mission on these blue orbs could have good prospects in the near future.

"I hope it may be time to turn to this gap in our knowledge and fill it," said Dr. Hammel.