The top picture shows Neptune as our eyes would see it. The bottom picture is infrared "light", which shows heat. The bright spot at the bottom of the IR image shows that Neptune's South Pole is the warmest place on the planet! Click on image for full size (24 Kb) Images courtesy of NASA/JPL (visible light) and VLT/ESO/NASA/JPL/Paris Observatory (infrared).

The South Pole of the planet Neptune is a bit strange. Triton, Neptune's largest moon, also has interesting poles.

Neptune is tilted on its axis by about 28°. That isn't so strange... Earth is tilted, too, by a similar amount of 23°. That means Neptune's poles take turns being in sunlight or in shadow. So Neptune has seasons, like Earth. However, Neptune takes roughly 164 years to orbit the Sun once. That means each season on Neptune lasts more than 40 Earth years! It has been summertime in Neptune's Southern Hemisphere for the last few decades. Sunlight has been warming Neptune's South Pole for many years. The South Pole of Neptune is the warmest place on the planet!

Neptune's magnetic field is tilted too. It isn't lined up with Neptune's spin axis. Earth's magnetic field is tilted, too, but only by a small amount... about 11°. Neptune's magnetic field is tilted a lot more... about 47°. If Earth's magnetic field was tilted that much, the North Magnetic Pole would be somewhere south of Paris, France.