Hubble’s new views of Jupiter and Uranus

This video showcases Hubble’s observations of Jupiter and Uranus.

The outer planets beyond Mars do not have solid surfaces to affect weather as on Earth. And sunlight is much less able to drive atmospheric circulation. Nevertheless, these are ever-changing worlds. And Hubble — in its role as interplanetary meteorologist — is keeping track, as it does every year. Jupiter’s weather is driven from the inside out, as more heat percolates up from its interior than it receives from the Sun. This heat indirectly drives colour-change cycles in the clouds, like the cycle that’s currently highlighting a system of alternating cyclones and anticyclones. Uranus has seasons that pass by at a snail’s pace because it takes 84 years to complete one orbit about the Sun. But those seasons are extreme, because Uranus is tipped on its side. As summer approaches in the northern hemisphere, Hubble sees a growing polar cap of high-altitude photochemical haze that looks similar to the smog over cities on Earth.