Scots scientists help solve mystery of icy Neptune’s murky depths

Scientists at the University of Edinburgh have helped solve the mystery of what lies beneath the surface of the most distant planet in our solar system.

An international study has shed light on the chemical make-up of Neptune, which lies around 4.5 billion kilometres from the Sun.

Extremely low temperatures on planets like Neptune – called ice giants – mean that chemicals on these distant worlds exist in a frozen state.

Frozen mixtures of water, ammonia and methane make up a thick layer between the planets’ atmosphere and core – known as the mantle .

However, the form in which these chemicals are stored is poorly understood by scientists.

Using laboratory experiments to study these conditions is difficult, as it is very hard to recreate the extreme pressures and temperatures found on ice giants. Research- ers ran large-scale computer simulations of conditions in the mantle of Neptune, which has 14 moons, among them Triton.

By looking at how the chemicals there react with each other at very high pressures and low temperatures, they were able to predict which compounds are formed in the mantle.

Dr Andreas Hermann, a researcher at Edinburgh’s centre for science at extreme conditions, said: “This study helps us better predict what is inside icy planets like Neptune.”