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Recent observations from the Hubble Space
Telescope show that Neptune's clouds are almost

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completely disappearing!

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Astronomers report that their continual monitoring
of Neptune’s weather uncovered a link between

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its shifting cloud abundance and the 11-year
solar cycle, in which the Sun’s entangled

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magnetic fields drives solar activity.

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When activity on the Sun increases, more intense
ultraviolet radiation floods the solar system.

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Astronomers found that two years after the
solar cycle’s peak, the number of clouds

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on Neptune increases.

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The link between Neptune and the Sun’s activity
is surprising to planetary astronomers because

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Neptune is the outermost major planet, where
sunlight is 1/900th the intensity Earth receives.

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To monitor the evolution of Neptune’s appearance,
astronomers analyzed Hubble Space Telescope

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archival observations beginning in 1994, Keck
Observatory images taken from 1994 to 2022,

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and Lick Observatory data from 2018 to 2019.

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The combined data will enable further investigations
into the physics and chemistry that lead to

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Neptune’s dynamic appearance, which in turn
may help deepen astronomers’ understanding

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not only of Neptune, but also of planets beyond
our solar system.

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