Posted on 08/03/2017 9:13:43 PM PDT by BenLurkin
A nearly Earth-size storm system was spotted near Neptune's equator, surprising scientists because no bright clouds have ever been seen in that location.
The storm is about 6,000 miles (9,000 kilometers) in length — about three-quarters Earth's diameter — and is even huge compared to the size of Neptune: it spans nearly 30 degrees in both longitude and latitude. When astronomers studied the storm between June 26 and July 2, it appeared to get brighter.
"Seeing a storm this bright at such a low latitude is extremely surprising," Ned Molter, a graduate student at the University of California, Berkeley, said in a statement. He saw the storm while doing a test run at the W. M. Keck Observatory at Mauna Kea, Hawaii.
"Normally, this area is really quiet and we only see bright clouds in the mid-latitude bands, so to have such an enormous cloud sitting right at the equator is spectacular," he added.
Because telescope time is competitive, opportunities to observe the gas giant planets are rare. This means that professional astronomers may have to wait months or years in between observations. Amateurs, however, can supplement some of the observations as telescope and imaging technology improves.
(Excerpt) Read more at space.com ...
Sorry, folks. I think that was my SUVs fault. My bad.
I thout it was in Uranus
Glow-Bull warming, right?
Sunspots. Or lack thereof.
Al Bore was right - gorebull warming is causing more violent storms!
Zits! Damned zits!
3/4s is “nearly”? I disagree. Stupid media fools.
Sounds like a magnetic disturbance in the solar system. Any comets out there?
I think the late night radio guy said something strange is out there. Must be that smaller than Pluto sized rock that is Planet X or Nibiru.
Actually the show was kind of serious and talked about magnetic disturbances possibly being an issue here as well
Trump is even making Neptune great again!
Scientists are surprised when their stupid assumptions are shown to be wrong. They should not be surprised. Instead, they should be humbled and correct their stupid assumptions.
Or admit that they don’t know.
Ah! It all makes sense now.
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