Elon Musk and NASA just made a massive discovery on Neptune. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration, or NASA, is a well-known agency in the United States. With its research and achievements, it's been responsible for many of America's greatest accomplishments. NASA does have one of the largest budgets of any U.S. government department, allowing it to fund lots of new, high-powered investigations. NASA, on the other hand, has unlocked lots of new possibilities by collaborating with Elon Musk. From the dawn of the space era to the present day, humanity has never stopped making new discoveries, so sit back and see what happens as we learn something about Elon Musk and NASA's massive discovery on Neptune. Welcome back to Big Brain Tech. Use that grain matter wisely. Click this video, subscribe if you haven't already, and spread the knowledge by sharing this video. How it Started NASA has a long and rich history of space exploration, which no one can deny. The space agency has landed rovers on Mars, sampled Jupiter's atmosphere, investigated Saturn and Mercury, and even landed humans on the moon in the decades since its founding. NASA's twin probes, each one carrying 10 equipment, revealed a variety of new data on interplanetary space and in particular, Neptune. The twin probes Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 were both launched in 1977 to gather data on Jupiter's and Saturn's atmospheres, interiors, satellites and magnetosphere. But later on, Voyager 2 had its approval to extend its mission to Uranus, Neptune, and beyond was given. Voyager 2's discoveries Voyager 2 carried a full suite of equipment to record magnetic, atmospheric, lunar and other data about the planetary systems, as well as a slow scan color TV camera to capture images of the planets and their moons. The closest of Voyager 2's four flybys was on August 25, 1989, at 356 Universal Time when it passed about 2,980 miles or 4,800 kilometers over the cloud tops of Neptune, capping a 4.3 billion mile or 7 billion kilometer voyage. It was the planet's first human-made object to flyby. At the time, all 10 of its instruments were operational. The spacecraft revealed six new moons, Proteus, Larissa, Dyspina, Galataya, Talasa, and four new rings during the flybys. With winds of 680 miles or 1,100 kilometers per hour, the planet was discovered to be more active than previously thought. Although a plentiful methane gave the planet its blue hue, hydrogen was discovered to be the most frequent atmospheric element. The lesser dark spot, the great dark spot and scooter, three main features in the planetary clouds were revealed in detail by imagery. Two-thirds of Neptune's largest moon triton was captured by Voyager, exposing the solar system's coldest known planetary body and a nitrogen ice volcano on its surface. Spectacular photos of its southern hemisphere revealed a bizarre, pitted surface resembling that of a catalogue. The Great Dark Spot GDS89 was one of a series of dark spots on Neptune. GDS89 was discovered by NASA's Voyager Two Space probe in 1989, making it the first great dark spot on Neptune to be discovered. But what exactly is this great dark spot? GDS89's elliptically shaped dark spot with initial dimensions of 13,000 by 6,600 kilometers or 1,100 by 4,100 miles was nearly the same size as Earth. Neptune was supposed to be a lifeless, featureless, weatherless world in deep ice according to astronomers. Voyager, on the other hand, discovered a chaotic atmosphere with lighter cloud ripples and furious storms. Winds blowing as high as 2,100 kilometers per hour or 1,300 miles per hour were recorded around the storm's edges. The fastest ever recorded in the solar system. The Great Dark Spot is believed to be a hole in Neptune's methane cloud deck. The spot was seen at various times in various sizes and shapes. The Great Dark Spot produced huge clouds near or below the Tropopause layer akin to Earth's high-altitude Sirus clouds. Unlike Earth's clouds which are made up of water ice crystals, Neptune's Sirus clouds are made up of frozen methane crystals. While Sirus clouds typically form and disperse within the next few hours, the clouds in the Great Dark Spot have still been visible after 36 hours or two planet rotations. Neptune's dark spots are thought to occur at lower altitudes in the Troposphere than the brighter upper cloud deck attributes. They're considered to be vortex structures because they're sustainable features that can last for months. The Great Dark Spot vanished. When the Hubble Space Telescope was scheduled to photograph the spot again in 1994, it had vanished completely, leading astronomers to believe that it had either been covered up or vanished entirely. Companion clouds indicate that some former dark spots may continue to exist as cyclones, even if they're no longer visible as dark features. Dark spots may disperse when they move very close to the equator or potentially through some other unknown system. 3 Discovered In 2016, however, a very similar spot appeared in Neptune's northern hemisphere. The Great Dark Spot, or NGDS, is a new spot that has been seen for several years, because sightings with a Hubble Telescope are limited, it is unknown whether this location is still existent on the planet. In 2018, a newer primary dark spot and mirror dark spot were discovered and investigated. In August 2020, the new Great Dark Spot abruptly halted its suddenly movement and turned around, defying predictions that the storm would continue to the equator, where it would most certainly disappear. A smaller dark spot junior was discovered near the main storm around the same time, however, it vanished later. Astronomers speculated that the storm's reversal of motion was associated to the development of the smaller storm. Neptune's temperature. The planet orbits the Sun at such a huge distance from it and receives so little heat from it that their typical temperatures are hundreds of degrees below freezing. According to NASA's officials, the minus 260 degrees Fahrenheit or minus 162 degrees Celsius temperature difference between Neptune's substantial core heat source and its freezing cloud tops could generate instabilities in the atmosphere that drive large-scale weather changes. Neptune, like all other planets, receives heat from the Sun, but there appears to be something furious within the planet that causes it to produce more heat than it absorbs. The source of this excess heat, according to scientist Brian Cox, is uncertain. But according to Hamill, typical planetary heating systems such as residual internal heat from formation and radioactive source decay could perhaps account for Neptune's temperature. The game changer. There are an endless number of assumptions and queries that haven't been answered. And as far as we know, there's only one individual who has the courage and ability to find out what they are. Elon Musk. There are usually more questions than answers for scientists, and there are always more missions they want to launch than there are resources to accomplish them. Some planetary scientists are beginning to believe that SpaceX's new Starship rocket with its exceptional lift capabilities and potentially paradigm shattering cheap costs could usher in a new era of exploration in the solar system. NASA, on the other hand, could deploy a stock bile of research with Starship. According to Heldman, you can truly take advantage of the Starship architecture and yet to the outer solar system in ways we haven't dreamed of before. It has the potential to be a game-changing new approach of exploring these worlds. We can expect breakthrough discoveries in the near future thanks to NASA and Musk's work and interests. What mysteries in the solar system do we expect to be unfolded next? Let us know what those are in the comments section below. But before this video ends, please remember to hit the subscribe button, like and share this with your friends, and see you on our next discoveries.