--- title: Hubble Telescope Confirms New Dark Spot on Neptune description: NASA's Hubble Space Telescope confirmed a dark vortex in Neptune's atmosphere that spans the width of the continental United States. canonical: https://time.com/4381443/neptune-has-a-new-dark-spot-and-its-as-big-as-the-u-s/ author: Rosalie Chan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-06-24T14:10:47.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-06T09:47:39.687Z article:section: Science og:title: Neptune Has a New Dark Spot and It's as Big as the U.S. og:description: Neptune's atmosphere has a dark vortex og:url: https://time.com/4381443/neptune-has-a-new-dark-spot-and-its-as-big-as-the-u-s/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf853327ce5b1d863/69889947a988ca4ab16b85cc/hubble-neptune-space.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Hubble-Neptune-Space- og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Neptune Has a New Dark Spot and It's as Big as the U.S. twitter:description: Neptune's atmosphere has a dark vortex twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf853327ce5b1d863/69889947a988ca4ab16b85cc/hubble-neptune-space.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Neptune Has a New Dark Spot and It's as Big as the U.S. > Sponsored content. 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Future Proof is TIME's weekly climate and energy newsletter, written by senior correspondent Justin Worland. It connects the energy transition to the decisions reshaping business, technology, policy and markets. #### Where can I follow the energy transition as a business story? Future Proof covers climate and energy as an economic and business story rather than only an environmental one. It publishes every Friday and is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Who writes Future Proof? Justin Worland, a senior correspondent at TIME and an award-winning climate journalist, writes Future Proof. #### Is Future Proof free? Yes. Future Proof is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-futureproof-2026q3/newsletters?i=575b2e0a-013b-48fb-a448-d8ad28f4acb9&cr=time-nl-futureproof-2026q3-v1) ## Video: NASA Discovers Neptune Vortex [Watch (HLS stream): NASA Discovers Neptune Vortex](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/OAD1B4x3.m3u8) (0:40)  _Published 2016-06-25. The Hubble Telescope took some pictures of the vortex which is as wide as the US._ by [Rosalie Chan](https://time.com/author/rosalie-chan/) ## Rosalie Chan Jun 24, 2016 2:10 PM UTC by [Rosalie Chan](https://time.com/author/rosalie-chan/) ## Rosalie Chan Jun 24, 2016 2:10 PM UTC Listen 00:001.0x01:30 Narrated by TIME AI. NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope confirmed a dark vortex in [Neptune’s atmosphere](http://time.com/3176517/nasa-spacecraft-reaches-neptune-on-its-way-to-pluto/?iid=sr-link1) that spans the width of the continental United States. The telescope obtained images on May 16 which confirmed the presence of this vortex, the first one observed in the 21st century. Hubble [announced this discovery](http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2016/22/full/) to the public Thursday. Neptune’s dark vortices are high-pressure systems that are usually accompanied by bright “companion clouds.” These pancake-shaped clouds form when the flow of ambient air is diverted upward over the dark vortex, which causes gases to likely freeze into methane ice crystals. They resemble clouds that sometimes form over Earth’s mountains. “Dark vortices coast through the atmosphere like huge, lens-shaped gaseous mountains,” University of California at Berkeley research astronomer Mike Wong, who led the team analyzing the Hubble data, said in a statement. Several observers started seeing bright clouds on [Neptune](http://content.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,2082955,00.html?iid=sr-link4) in July 2015, and astronomers suspected they might be companion clouds accompanying a dark vortex. The Outer Planet Atmospheres Legacy (OPAL) program, a Hubble Space Telescope project, revealed a dark spot near the clouds in September 2015\. The new Hubble images confirmed it and allowed the research team to create a map of the vortex and its surroundings. Similar features have been observed by the Voyager 2 flyby of Neptune in 1989 and by the Hubble Space Telescope in 1994. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4381443/neptune-has-a-new-dark-spot-and-its-as-big-as-the-u-s/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4381443/neptune-has-a-new-dark-spot-and-its-as-big-as-the-u-s/"},"headline":"Neptune Has a New Dark Spot and It's as Big as the U.S.","datePublished":"2016-06-24T14:10:47.000Z","dateModified":"2026-10-06T09:47:39.687Z","description":"Neptune's atmosphere has a dark vortex","url":"https://time.com/4381443/neptune-has-a-new-dark-spot-and-its-as-big-as-the-u-s/","keywords":["Space","astronomy"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf853327ce5b1d863/69889947a988ca4ab16b85cc/hubble-neptune-space.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Rosalie Chan","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/rosalie-chan/"}],"articleSection":"Science","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf853327ce5b1d863/69889947a988ca4ab16b85cc/hubble-neptune-space.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Hubble-Neptune-Space-","caption":"","creditText":"NASA","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/science/","name":"Science"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4381443/neptune-has-a-new-dark-spot-and-its-as-big-as-the-u-s/","name":"Neptune Has a New Dark Spot and It's as Big as the U.S."}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"NASA Discovers Neptune Vortex","description":"The Hubble Telescope took some pictures of the vortex which is as wide as the US.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/OAD1B4x3/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2016-06-25T15:31:27.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/OAD1B4x3.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4381443/neptune-has-a-new-dark-spot-and-its-as-big-as-the-u-s/","duration":"PT40S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4381443/neptune-has-a-new-dark-spot-and-its-as-big-as-the-u-s/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```