Hubble Observes Ice Giant Vortexes and Polar Storms on Neptune and Uranus
"Nestling up next to Neptune’s “dark vortex” are larger patches of white clouds created by gases freezing into methane crystals as air gets pushed up over the disturbance, not unlike the way clouds form over landmasses on Earth. Since the Hubble started tracking the storms, increased cloud activity has been a regular precursor to their appearance."
"The vortex visible today, for example, has been developing since 2016, when the Hubble first captured a blaze of bright cloud activity against Neptune’s icy blue depths. This suggests that the systems take a while to build and likely find their roots deeper in the planet’s atmosphere, and perhaps even deeper than that in its superheated ocean-like mantle of water, ammonia, and methane-ices."
"Meanwhile, Uranus’s entire polar region is currently ensconced in white, like a cockeyed celestial skullcap. The ice giant is tilted on its axis so that its pole practically points at the Sun—a unique configuration in our solar system indicative of a collision soon after the planet formed. Scientists think this near constant exposure of the northern pole creates atmospheric conditions ripe for enormous polar storms like the one Hubble captured in November 2018."
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