Extreme, Violent Storms on Icy Uranus Spotted by Amateur Astronomers

The face of Uranus is experiencing some epic storms. It turns out that enormous cloud systems are sweeping across the planet and have now become so bright that, for the first time ever, they can be spotted by amateur astronomers.

"The weather on Uranus is incredibly active," said Imke de Pater, one of the researchers, in a news release.

In fact, the researchers examining Uranus detected eight large storms on the planet's northern hemisphere on Aug. 5 and 6. One in particular was the brightest storm ever seen on Uranus; in fact, it accounted for 30 percent of all light reflected by the rest of the planet at the wavelength of 2.2 microns.

"This type of activity would have been expected in 2007, when Uranus's once-every-42-year equinox occurred and the sun shined directly on the equator," said Heidi Hammel, co-investigator. "But we predicted that such activity would have died down by now. Why we see these incredible storms now is beyond anybody's guess."

Amateur astronomers actually turned their telescopes on the planet when they heard about the increased activity. Surprisingly, they were able to see a bright blotch on the surface. Once the amateur images were processed, it was clear that they captured the storm feature when it was transiting.

"I was thrilled to see such activity on Uranus," said Marc Delcroix, the French amateur astronomer. "Getting details on Mars, Jupiter or Saturn is now routine, but seeing detail on Uranus and Neptune is the new frontier for us amateurs and I did not want to miss that. I was so happy to confirm myself these first amateur images on this bright storm on Uranus, feeling I was living a very special moment for planetary amateur astronomy."

The new observations show a bit more about the icy giant of Uranus. With the increased storm activity, though, scientists are now aware of how little they understand about the atmospheric dynamics in outer planet atmospheres. This, in turn, may help encourage future studies.