You are leaving nationalgeographic.com. Different terms of use will apply.
Neptune may seem like a serene sapphire world at first glance. But don't let its quiet azure hues fool you: The eighth planet from the sun is a wild child.
Neptune is the windiest planet in our solar system, whipping up momentous gusts that can reach more than 1,200 miles an hour. That soothing sapphire expanse does reveal some of the whirling chaos below in the form of cloudy bands and massive gyres that look like dark smudges on its surface.
One “Great Dark Spot” captured by Voyager 2 in 1989 could have fit an entire Earth inside. Though it's since disappeared, others have taken its place. In March of 2019, astronomers revealed for the first time that they witnessed the birth of one of Neptune's massive storms. Nearly as big as the maelstrom that Voyager documented, the baby storm seemed to take shape from bright white clouds between 2015 through 2017, emerging as a full-fledged gyre in 2018.
Orbiting at a distance of roughly 2.8 billion miles from the sun, Neptune is the furthest planet yet...
Copyright © 1996-2015 National Geographic Society.
Copyright © 2015-2021 National Geographic Partners, LLC. All rights reserved