While the storm was once big enough to stretch across the Atlantic Ocean from Boston to Portugal, images taken by Nasa’s Hubble Space Telescope reveal that it is shrinking out of existence. Like Jupiter ’s Great Red Spot, the storm swirls in an anti-cyclonic direction, and is pulling material up from within Neptune’s atmosphere. But unlike Jupiter’s Great Red Spot, which has been visible for at least 200 years, Neptune’s storm has only appeared in the last few years, and is already dying. Dr Wong added: “No facilities other than Hubble and Voyager have observed these vortices. “For now, only Hubble can provide the data we need to understand how common or rare these fascinating neptunian weather systems may be.”

Source: Daily Mirror February 20, 2018 11:37 UTC