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Big Storms
Featured on February 10, 2019
Recent snapshots of the outer planets Uranus (left) and Neptune show giant storms in their atmospheres. A shield of clouds covers the north pole of Uranus, which is tilted on its side as it orbits the Sun. It's near mid-summer in the northern hemisphere, and seasonal weather patterns may be responsible for the clouds. A smaller storm circles just outside the cloud shield, with a band of clouds near the planet's equator. A new dark storm has appeared on Neptune (visible near the bright clouds at top). Several dark storms have been spotted on the planet over the years, but they don't last long. Bright, high-altitude clouds surround the dark storm. [NASA/ESA/A. Simon (GSFC)/M.H. Wong and A. Hsu (UC-Berkeley)]
