Does anyone know if other planets in our Solar System have also undergone a

Trevor

Member
Hi Mycroft H,

In our solar system there are 189 primary solar bodies such as planets and moons and warming has been observed on seven of them. They are Earth, Mars, Io, Pluto, Triton, Enceladus and Jupiter, in each case the warming is caused by conditions unique to that body.

Earth is warming due to increased retention of thermal radiation, Io is warming because of Jupiter’s gravitational pull, Pluto is warming because the pressure of it’s atmosphere has quadrupled, Triton is warming because of a change in it’s albedo, Enceladus is warming due to increased geothermal heating, Jupiter is warming due to internal turbulence and Mars is warming due to changes in reflectance.

Sometimes it’s pointed out that Neptune is also warming. Parts of it are but only because it’s approaching summer time. Our seasons are 3 months long, on Neptune they’re 41 years.

It has been claimed in the past that the evidence for warming on other planets and moons indicates that there must be a common factor, something that also accounts for the warming on Earth. In this respect it has erroneously been stated that the Sun is the cause of warming on Earth and beyond.

For many years now we have instrumentally been observing the amount of energy being radiated outwards by the Sun. These instruments are extremely precise and show that total solar irradiance has actually fallen ever so slightly in recent decades. If the Sun were the only factor then temperatures here on Earth would have been falling since 1979, albeit by only a very small amount.

It’s actually quite easy to measure the temperatures of different planets and moons and this is done by nothing more complicated than looking at the amount of light being given off. Not the light that we see with our eyes, but light in the infrared spectrum, measure this and we know what the temperature is.
 

Jep2

New member
Global warming and cooling has been happening before modern man inhabited the earth. This is proven by fossilised pollen, arctic and temperate zone bore samples. We are currently retreating from our seventh ice age. Don't just look at data going back 500 years. Go back 10,000,s of years
We are however responsible for pollution.
 

JeffM

Member
The thing that cause the ice ages, approximately ever 100,000 years, on Earth are what is known as Milankovitch cycles. Those being changes in the distance and the axis of the Earth as it orbits the Sun. Other planets have changing orbits as well. Therefor they go through much the same processes. As has been shown already, no all the planets are not warming, some are actually cooling.
 

Baccheus

New member
There is no conclusive evidence whether Mars is warming or cooling global, though there appears to be some changes going on. But in any case, Mars climate is affected by dust storms unrelated to the earth.

Neptune appears to be warming -- but it has a year equal to 164 earth years. The observed changes are likely just seasonal changes.

Triton may have warmed but it too is a seasonal change. It's seasons change over hundreds of years.

Jupiter is whacked. It supplies its own heat and warms in one place while cooling in another.

Maybe Pluto, but that is also likely season and it has an odd orbit.

Uranus is cooling.

Out of over 100 bodies in the solar system, about 6 have been observed to be warming and at least one cooling. Each of those bodies has its own climate, atmospheric or orbital conditions that affect their climates unrelated to earth. Most importantly, the only way that warming of other bodies would indicate changes comparable to the earth would be changes in the sun. But if we want to know if the sun is changing, we'd be smarter to meaure it directly, yes? Well, we do. What we know is that over the past 35 years, solar irradiance has DECREASED. So, were the changes on the other planets due to our shared experience, then all bodies would be cooling rather than warming. If Mars is really warming then it HAS to be for Martian reasons. Likewise if the earth is warming, as we know it is, it HAS to be for earthly reasons. The bodies in the solar system are not changing universally and if they were they would be cooling rather than warming.
 
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