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Neptune Dark Spot Compass

Dark spot on Neptune with Compass

About the Object

  • Distance
    DistanceThe physical distance from Earth to the astronomical object. Distances within our solar system are usually measured in Astronomical Units (AU). Distances between stars are usually measured in light-years. Interstellar distances can also be measured in parsecs.
    Neptune was approximately 2.83 billion miles from Earth at the time of observations

About the Data

  • Data Description
    Data DescriptionProposal: A description of the observations, their scientific justification, and the links to the data available in the science archive.
    Science Team: The astronomers who planned the observations and analyzed the data. "PI" refers to the Principal Investigator.

    The HST observations include those from program 16057 (M.Wong)

  • Instrument
    InstrumentThe science instrument used to produce the data.
    WFC3/UVIS
  • Exposure Dates
    Exposure DatesThe date(s) that the telescope made its observations and the total exposure time.
    07 January 2020, 08 January 2020
  • Filters
    FiltersThe camera filters that were used in the science observations.
    F467M, F547M, F763M
  • Object Name
    Object NameA name or catalog number that astronomers use to identify an astronomical object.
    Neptune
  • Object Description
    Object DescriptionThe type of astronomical object.
    Neptune with two dark spots annotated
  • Release Date
    December 15, 2020
  • Science Release
    Dark Storm on Neptune Reverses Direction, Possibly Shedding a Fragment
    Read the release
  • Credits
    NASA, ESA, STScI, M.H. Wong (University of California, Berkeley), and L.A. Sromovsky and P.M. Fry (University of Wisconsin-Madison)

Downloads

  • Full Res, 675 × 675
    tif (1.32 MB)
  • Full Res, 675 × 675
    png (91.79 KB)
Dark spot on Neptune with Compass
Color Info
Color InfoA brief description of the methods used to convert telescope data into the color image being presented.

These images are a composite of separate exposures acquired by the WFC3 instrument on the Hubble Space Telescope. Several filters were used to sample medium wavelength ranges. The color results from assigning different hues (colors) to each monochromatic (grayscale) image associated with an individual filter. In this case, the assigned colors are:Blue: F467MGreen: F547MRed: F763MTo enhance the contrast between dark features and their surroundings, many individual Hubble exposures were combined, and an average background map was subtracted to remove the geometrical effect of limb darkening.

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Details

Last Updated
Mar 11, 2025
Contact
Media

Claire Andreoli
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
Greenbelt, Maryland
claire.andreoli@nasa.gov

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