For the first time, researchers have detected a “massive energy imbalance” in this gas giant. This suggests that the planet isn’t experiencing energy balance in the way that planetary scientists expected.
“Not only does this give us new insight into the formation and evolution of planets, but it also changes the way we should think about planetary and atmospheric science,” Li noted. While scouring through the data, researchers came across a huge energy imbalance on Saturn, which had previously gone unnoticed.
“Every planet gets energy from the Sun in the form of solar radiation and loses energy by emitting thermal radiation. But Saturn, like the other gas giants, has another energy input in the form of deep internal heat affecting its thermal structure and climate,” explained Xinyue Wang, a third-year doctoral student in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences. Saturn has a more elliptical orbit than Earth, which is almost circular.