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Neptune’s Mysterious Shrinking Storm

Neptune's Mysterious Shrinking Storm
This series of Hubble Space Telescope images taken over 2 years tracks the demise of a giant dark vortex on the planet Neptune. The oval-shaped spot has shrunk from 3,100 miles across its long axis to 2,300 miles across, over the Hubble observation period. Immense dark storms on Neptune were first discovered in the late 1980s by the Voyager 2 spacecraft. Since then only Hubble has tracked these elusive features that play a game of peek-a-boo over the years. Hubble found two dark storms that appeared in the mid-1990s and then vanished. This latest storm was first seen in 2015. The first images of the dark vortex are from the Outer Planet Atmospheres Legacy (OPAL) program, a long-term Hubble project that annually captures global maps of our solar system's four outer planets.

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.
    The semi-major axis of Neptune's orbit about the Sun is 30.06 astronomical units (roughly 2.8 billion miles or 4.5 billion kilometers).
  • Dimensions
    DimensionsThe physical size of the object or the apparent angle it subtends on the sky.
    Neptune has a diameter of roughly 30,800 miles (49,600 kilometers) at the equator.

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 programs 13937, 14334, 14756, (A. Simon), and 14492 (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.
    18 September 2015, 16 May and 03 October 2016, and 06 October 2017
  • 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.
    Planet
  • Release Date
    February 15, 2018
  • Science Release
    Hubble Sees Neptune’s Mysterious Shrinking Storm
    Read the release
  • Credit
    NASA, ESA, and M.H. Wong and A.I. Hsu (UC Berkeley)

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Neptune's Mysterious Shrinking Storm
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/UVIS instrument on the Hubble Space Telescope. Several filters were used to sample narrow 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: F467M Green: F547M Red: F763M

Related Images & Videos

Hubble Watches Neptune’s Dark Storm Die

Hubble Watches Neptune’s Dark Storm Die

For the first time, NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has captured time-lapse images of a large, dark storm on Neptune shrinking out of existence. A recent Hubble program called Outer Planets Atmosphere Legacy, or OPAL, provides yearly global maps of our gas giant planets, allowing...

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Last Updated
Mar 14, 2025
Contact
Media

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

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