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In 1977, the twin spacecraft Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 left the Earth for their bold mission of discovery.
“The Grand Tour” program gave humanity its first close-up view of the outer planets...
Jupiter Its Great Red Spot is a storm that’s been churning for centuries.
Saturn Its rings are made of particles as small as sand to as big as a house.
Uranus It’s the only planet that rotates on its side.
Neptune Its winds blow as fast as 1.300 miles per hour.
Four decades later, the Hubble Space Telescope is working on a “grand tour” of its own.
Hubble’s Outer Planets Atmospheres Legacy program is looking closely at these gas giants every year.
Hubble's yearly observations track subtle changes in their atmospheres over a regular time period...
...giving us a better understanding of how they evolve.
Even at nearly 3 billion miles from the outer planets, Hubble captured their images in great detail…
…enough to see variations in their atmospheres.
JUPITER Hubble’s 2021 images of Jupiter track the ever-changing landscape of its turbulent atmosphere, where several new storms are making their mark.
SATURN This new look at Saturn shows rapid and extreme color changes in the bands of the planet’s northern hemisphere.
URANUS The increase in ultraviolet radiation absorbed from the Sun seems to be causing the polar region to brighten.
NEPTUNE A storm discovered on Neptune in 2018 has reversed direction and is moving north. This new “dark spot” is visible in this image, along with a darkened northern hemisphere.
Thanks to Hubble’s watchful eye, these gas giants will continue to provide us with clues to their evolution.
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