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PIA01982: Neptune's Clouds
 Target Name:  Neptune
 Is a satellite of:  Sol (our sun)
 Mission:  Voyager
 Spacecraft:  Voyager 2
 Instrument:  VG ISS - Narrow Angle
 Product Size:  470 x 449 pixels (w x h)
 Produced By:  JPL
 Producer ID:  P34636
 Primary Data Set:  Voyager EDRs
 Full-Res TIFF:  PIA01982.tif (124.5 kB)
 Full-Res JPEG:  PIA01982.jpg (30.96 kB)

Click on the image above to download a moderately sized image in JPEG format (possibly reduced in size from original)

Original Caption Released with Image:

The bright cirrus-like clouds of Neptune change rapidly, often forming and dissipating over periods of several to tens of hours. In this sequence Voyager 2 observed cloud evolution in the region around the Great Dark Spot (GDS). The surprisingly rapid changes which occur separating each panel shows that in this region Neptune's weather is perhaps as dynamic and variable as that of the Earth. However, the scale is immense by our standards -- the Earth and the GDS are of similar size -- and in Neptune's frigid atmosphere, where temperatures are as low as 55 degrees Kelvin (-360 F), the cirrus clouds are composed of frozen methane rather than Earth's crystals of water ice. The Voyager Mission is conducted by JPL for NASA's Office of Space Science and Applications

Image Credit:
NASA/JPL

Image Addition Date:
1999-10-14