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The outer planets of the solar system are photographed each year by NASA's most venerable space telescope.
The Hubble Space Telescope turned to each planet this autumn. Astronomers can use the tradition to observe how the atmospheres of Jupiter, Neptune, and other planets change over time. The photos are stunning. The images from this year's grand tour were released by NASA.
The images show the differences between the outer and inner worlds. The outer gas giants are 30 times farther away from the sun than Earth is, meaning they are extremely cold.
A guide to things around the sun.
New images from the Hubble Space Telescope show the planets in the solar system, as part of the grand tour. The image is from NASA.
The far-flung worlds are mostly composed of cold gasses of hydrogen, helium, ammonia, methane and deep water around a hot, compact core.
From Hubble's position above the International Space Station and as far away as 3 billion miles from the outer worlds, the space telescope has documented striking changes in the planets' atmospheres year over year. Each year, scientists working on the Outer Planets Atmospheres Legacy program turn Hubble's images into yearly maps of each planet that allow researchers to study the dynamic forces driving the planets' unusual weather patterns.
The view of Jupiter taken by Hubble on Sept. 4, 2021, captured a more reddish equator than expected and bright red storms called "barges." The image was taken by NASA, the European Space Agency, and the University of Berkeley.
There are new storms and color differences near the equator in this year's view of Jupiter. The image captured a darker, more reddish equator than expected and several bright red storms called "barges." There is a smaller spot called "Red Spot Jr." beneath Jupiter's famous Great Red Spot.
Amy Simon, a planetary scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, said in the statement that the image quality and detail in the cloud features always blow her away. When I look at Jupiter, in the barges or in the red band below, I can see cloud structures that are much deeper. There's a lot of structure here and vertical depth variation.
A new view of the planet shows rapid and extreme color changes in the northern hemisphere. A. Simon (NASA-GSFC), M. H. Wong (UC Berkeley), and A. Pagan (STScI) are all pictured.
Hubble's latest view of the planet shows the northern hemisphere entering early autumn. The yellow and gold bands in the atmosphere change in rapid and extreme ways when the seasonal change occurs.
The planet's south pole is coming off the winter season and has a blue hue. According to the statement, the hexagonal storm that was visible last year was not captured by the Hubble image. The storm was first spotted by the Voyager mission 30 years ago.
A brighter polar region is caused by an increase in ultraviolet radiation absorbed from the sun. A. Simon (NASA-GSFC), M. H. Wong (UC Berkeley), and A. Pagan (STScI) are all pictured.
Similarly, Neptune and Uranus show changes as well. The bright northern polar hood of Uranus is highlighted in an October 25 image. The north pole of the planet is pointed toward the sun in the springtime because of the dramatic tilt of the planet's axis.
The polar region gets brighter because of the change in the concentration of methane gas and haze particles in the planet's atmosphere caused by the spring's increase in ultraviolet radiation absorbed from the sun.
The dark northern hemisphere of Neptune was captured by Hubble in September of 2021. A. Simon (NASA-GSFC), M. H. Wong (UC Berkeley), and A. Pagan (STScI) are all pictured.
The northern hemisphere of Neptune is darker than usual and shows a giant storm in an image captured by Hubble. Scientists estimate that the storm is larger than the Atlantic Ocean and has moved around the planet since it was first spotted. The storm is moving back north in the new image.
The Hubble image shows a dark circle around the south pole and some bright clouds caused by the absorption of red light by the planet's methane-rich atmosphere.
The ability to track atmospheric changes over decades is only possible with a space telescope.
This is something we can do with Hubble. Michael Wong, a planetary scientist from the University of California, Berkeley, said in the statement that with Hubble's high resolution, we can narrow things down to which band is actually changing.
"If you were to look at this through a ground-based telescope, there's some blurring with our atmosphere, and you'll lose some of those color variations," Wong said. Hubble's visible-light images are sharper than anything from the ground.
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