Rotation of Neptune

This video is a full-globe map of the distant planet Neptune, created from Hubble Space Telescope data taken Jan. 7-8, 2020.

The movie reveals Neptune's dynamic weather: white clouds of methane ice crystals swirling around the planet and two giant dark spots churning in the northern hemisphere. The larger spot, a giant storm, resides at the top of the planet; the smaller spot, is located below and to the right of its bigger cousin. The planet completes a rotation every 16 hours.

Around the southern pole, banding is concentrated where the winds are blowing west to east, in the same direction as the planet's rotation. Closer to the equator, including where the dark vortex sits, the winds are blowing east to west, in the opposite direction as the planet's rotation.

The giant vortex is 4,600 miles across, wider than the Atlantic Ocean. The slightly smaller companion is 3,900 miles across. The smaller feature may be a spin-off of the giant storm that later disappeared.