Keck Observatory: New Storm Makes Surprise Appearance on Neptune

[MargaritaMc]

New Storm Makes Surprise Appearance on Neptune
http://www.keckobservatory.org/recent/e ... on_neptune

Extremely large, bright storm system caught on camera at W. M. Keck Observatory

Click to view full size image

Maunakea, Hawaii – Striking images of a storm system nearly the size of Earth have astronomers doing a double-take after pinpointing its location near Neptune’s equator, a region where no bright cloud has ever been seen before.

“Seeing a storm this bright at such a low latitude is extremely surprising,” said Ned Molter, a graduate student at University of California, Berkeley, who spotted the storm complex during a test run of twilight observing at W. M. Keck Observatory on Maunakea, Hawaii. “Normally, this area is really quiet and we only see bright clouds in the mid-latitude bands, so to have such an enormous cloud sitting right at the equator is spectacular.”

http://www.skyandtelescope.com/astronom ... s-neptune/

[geckzilla]

Huh, I had no idea that's what Neptune looked like from Keck. That's rather incredible.

[MargaritaMc]

Huh, I had no idea that's what Neptune looked like from Keck. That's rather incredible.

Yes, I was pretty impressed. It is astounding what can now be achieved by terrestrial telescopes with adaptive optics.

The W. M. Keck Observatory operates the most scientifically productive telescopes on Earth. The two, 10-meter optical/infrared telescopes on the summit of Maunakea on the Island of Hawaii feature a suite of advanced instruments including imagers, multi-object spectrographs, high-resolution spectrographs, integral-field spectrometers, and world-leading laser guide star adaptive optics systems. The Observatory is a private 501(c) 3 non-profit organization and a scientific partnership of the California Institute of Technology, the University of California, and NASA
http://www.keckobservatory.org/recent/e ... on_neptune