Uranus appears as a blue-greenish disk due to the presence of

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BlackTom AI · Accepted Answer

To tackle why Uranus looks blue-green, we need to consider atmospheric constituents and how they interact with sunlight.
Option 1: nitrogen. While nitrogen is a major component of many planetary atmospheres, the color of Uranus is not driven by nitrogen absorption bands. Nitrogen alone does not produce the characteristic blue-green hue observed.
Option 2: helium. Helium is chemically inert and does not have absorption features in the visible range that would yield a blue-green coloration. Its presence mainly affects the altitude of the atmosphere and overall density rather than the color.
Option 3: ammonia. Ammonia can contribute to cloud formation and reflectance, but the distinctive blue-green tint of Uranus is not primarily due to ammonia absorption in the visible spectrum. If ammonia were dominant, the color would differ and other absorption or scattering effects would be needed to explain it.
Option 4: methane. Methane has strong absorption bands in the red end of the visible spectrum, effectively removing red light from the reflected sunlight. This leaves the reflected light skewed toward the blue-green part of the spectrum, producing Uranus’s characteristic hue. This explanation aligns with known spectroscopy of Uranus’s atmosphere.
Option 5: hydrogen. While hydrogen is abundant and influences the atmospheric scale height and spectrum, the specific blue-green coloration is not explained by hydrogen alone; it does not account for the selective absorption that yields the observed color as cleanly as methane does.
Thus, evaluating the absorption features and how they shape the reflected color, the most consistent cause for Uranus’s blue-green appearance is the presence of methane in its atmosphere.

ASTRON 2140 AU2025 (23428) Final - 2025 Dec 12

Uranus appears as a blue-greenish disk due to the presence of

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