That headline is a distant second to the New York Post’s recent headline, but presumably it will attract some attention.
The Hubble Space Telescope spotted a huge storm on the planet Uranus, which appears to cover a substantial portion of one of its hemispheres.
Comparing the image above with a photo of the planet taken in November, the change in the cloud cover is clearly apparent.
Neptune, on the right, also shows evidence of a storm in its polar region, on the upper left, but nowhere near the size of the storm on Uranus.
It is believed that this sort of storm is related to the fact that, unique among the planets, Uranus’ axis of rotation is nearly parallel to the plane of its orbit around the sun. This means that when one hemisphere is in summer (as it is now), that side of the planet is in continuous sunshine while the opposite pole is in darkness. Because Uranus’ orbit is so long (about 84 Earth years), these seasons last for decades.
Polar vortex or no, I think I prefer the weather on Earth to that on Uranus.
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Top Comments (February 8, 2019):
From Otteray Scribe:
Crashing Vor hits one out of the park once again, this time in ceebee7's diary, "This is about more than my passion. This is about the children’s future, Mr. Whitaker.” CV points out the claim, "That's not what we are," is a lie.
From survivor7812:
I feel that kobaltkween hit the nail directly on it's head explaining that racism isn't only about overtly racist behavior but also about the outcome of said behavior even if it wasn't overtly racist. Well done. From Lefty Coaster’s recommended post on the arrest of 3 terrorists in Florida.
Highlighted by navajo:
Is this comment by koNko! Baby goats! Don’t miss! Beautiful!
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Top Photos (February 7, 2019):
Tonight’s picture quilt is courtesy of jotter!