Neptune has never had a dedicated space mission, but the Hubble Space Telescope sheds new light on the workings of the mysterious planet.
News management: A new photo from the space telescope shows a long-lasting storm – the dark spot in the upper center – first observed in 2018, which continues to be strong.
- Scientists expected the great dark storm to disappear because they saw it heading towards the equator of the planet, where these types of storms usually fade.
- However, new Hubble observations show the dark spot – which is wider than the Atlantic Ocean – has unexpectedly moved over the equator.
Intrigue: Hubble also found a smaller dark storm in the planet’s atmosphere in January. Scientists suspect it may be part of the bigger storm.
- “Also in January, the dark whirlwind stopped moving and began moving north again,” Michael Wong of the University of California at Berkeley said in a statement. “Perhaps throwing that fragment was enough to prevent him from moving to the equator.”