Hubble takes a little time to look closer to home.
Rather than looking into space and time, it focuses on our own Solar System, specifically the planets that are not in the asteroid belt.
That's not just because they're pretty. Every year, the Outer Planet Atmospheres Legacy program conducts the observations.
Hubble's longevity gives it an edge over other instruments when it comes to dedicated probes, because the outer ice giants have been neglected when it comes to higher resolution images.
The space telescope has been in low-Earth orbit since 1990 and has shown us the universe in stunning detail. The long-term evolution and dynamics of the planets in the outer Solar System can be shown under the OPAL program.
Hubble's images of the outer planets are among the most high-resolution possible, except for those taken by probes in close proximity.
The pictures of Neptune and Uranus are blurry compared to the space telescope's images of distant nebulae and galaxies, but that's because of their relative sizes in the sky. The full Moon is larger than Andromeda. There are pinpricks in the sky.
OPAL has shown us that Jupiter's Red Spot is changing shape and color, and that it has powerful and spectacular auroras. Radio wave activity and a polar auroral asymmetry indicative of a magnetic field have been revealed by Hubble.
Hubble's images have allowed scientists to track a dark storm on Neptune that has been behaving very oddly as it roams across the cold skies, and revealed clouds on Uranus, which is surrounded by its rings and moons.
The OPAL images taken in September and October reveal some fascinating new details about our giant planets.
The image of Jupiter was taken by Hubble. M.H. Wong is a member of the UC Berkeley team.
Jupiter is turbulent with storms, with counter-rotating bands of clouds blowing around the planet by powerful winds. This year, the planet is wearing a belt with orange and red bands wrapped around its equator, which is usually white or pale brown.
There are red spots above the equator. These storms are cyclonic storms that are likely to be temporary, unlike the Red Spot and Red Spot Jr just below it, which are currently brown and have been joined by several smaller, pale storms.
The Hubble Telescope has an image ofSaturn. The OPAL team is made up of M.H. Wong and UC Berkeley.
The images of the ringed planet show it with its northern hemisphere in the autumn. As it circles the Sun it undergoes seasonal changes because it is tilted just like Earth. The seasons on Saturn are 7.5 years long, making it 29 Earth years.
The clouds change with the temperatures on the hemispheres. The stripes of the moon are changing color, and look different than they did last year when the northern hemisphere was at the tail end of summer.
The image of Uranus was taken by Hubble. The OPAL team is made up of M.H. Wong and UC Berkeley.
In the northern hemisphere, Uranus is having springtime. It is farther from the Sun than it is from the other side, so it takes 21 Earth years to travel from one side to the other.
The cloud cover over the north pole of Uranus shines brightly in Hubble's image. Scientists don't know why this happens, but believe it could be caused by the Sun's ultraviolet radiation interacting with something in the planet's atmosphere. There could be a number of reasons for that, such as a change in atmospheric methane.
Over the past few years of Hubble observations, there has been a pronounced boundary at 43 degrees of latitude. There could be a jetstream there.
The image of Neptune was taken by Hubble. The OPAL team is made up of M.H. Wong and UC Berkeley.
On 7 September, Neptune was imaged. The southern hemisphere is thought to be experiencing spring, but seasons there last over 40 Earth years. It has been autumn and spring on Neptune for over 20 years, and will likely continue for another 20.
Neptune's storm is still hanging around, according to the new images. You can see it from the top of the planet. You will see a dark circle around the south pole if you look carefully. That's been present since August 1989 when the second voyage of the spaceship, called Voyager 2, flew past on its journey to parts unknown.
The OPAL team is credited with the cover image.
