\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tTemperatures Across Our Solar System\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/h1>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n![\"Illustration](\"https:\/\/smd-cms.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/edu-solar-system-large.png?w=1536\")
<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\nAn illustration of our solar system. Planets and other objects are not to scale.<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\tCredits: <\/span>
\n\t\t\t\t\t\tNASA<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nWhat\u2019s the weather like out there? We mean waaaay out there in our solar system \u2013 where the forecast might not be quite what you think.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s look at the mean temperature of the Sun, and the planets in our solar system. The mean temperature is the average temperature over the surface of the rocky planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars. Dwarf planet Pluto also has a solid surface. But since the gas giants don\u2019t have a surface, the mean is the average temperature at what would be equivalent at sea level on Earth.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\n\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/smd-cms.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/solar-system-thermometer.jpg?w=976\")
<\/figure>\nAn illustration of planets in our solar system showing their mean temperatures. Planets and dwarf planet Pluto are not to scale.\u00a0<\/div>\nNASA<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nLet\u2019s start with our Sun. You already know the Sun<\/a> is hot. OK, it\u2019s extremely hot! But temperatures on the Sun also are a bit puzzling.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/smd-cms.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/sun-oct-30-2023-1024-0304.jpg?w=1024\")
<\/figure>\nAn image of the Sun taken Oct. 30, 2023, by NASA\u2019s Solar Dynamics Observatory.<\/div>\nNASA\/SDO<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nThe hottest part of the Sun is its core, where temperatures top 27 million\u00b0F (15 million\u00b0C). The part of the Sun we call its surface \u2013 the photosphere \u2013 is a relatively cool 10,000\u00b0 F (5,500\u00b0C). In one of the Sun\u2019s biggest mysteries, the Sun\u2019s outer atmosphere, the corona, gets hotter the farther it stretches from the surface. The corona reaches up to 3.5 million\u00b0F (2 million\u00b0C) \u2013 much, much hotter than the photosphere.<\/p>\n
So some temperatures on the Sun are a bit upside down. How about the planets? Surely things are cooler on the planets that are farther from the Sun.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Well, mostly. But then there\u2019s Venus.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\n\n![\"Cloud-swaddled](\"https:\/\/smd-cms.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/venus-mariner-10-pia23791-fig2.jpg?w=1096\")
<\/figure>\nAs it sped away from Venus, NASA\u2019s Mariner 10 spacecraft captured this seemingly peaceful view of a planet the size of Earth, wrapped in a dense, global cloud layer. But, contrary to its serene appearance, the clouded globe of Venus is a world of intense heat, crushing atmospheric pressure and clouds of corrosive acid.<\/div>\nNASA\/JPL-Caltech<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nVenus is the second closest planet to the Sun after Mercury, with an average distance from the Sun of about 67 million miles (108 million kilometers). It takes sunlight about six minutes to travel to Venus.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Venus also is Earth\u2019s closest neighbor and is similar in size. It has even been called Earth\u2019s twin. But Venus is shrouded in clouds and has a dense atmosphere that acts as a greenhouse and heats the surface to above the melting point of lead. It has a mean surface temperature of 867\u00b0F (464\u00b0C).\u00a0<\/p>\n
So Venus \u2013 not Mercury \u2013 is the hottest planet in our solar system. Save that bit of info for any future trivia contests.<\/p>\n
Maybe Venus is hotter, but Mercury is the closest planet to the Sun. Surely it gets hot, too?\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\n\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/smd-cms.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/mercury-messenger-globe-pia15162.jpg?w=2048\")
<\/figure>\nMercury as seen from NASA\u2019s MESSENGER, the first spacecraft to orbit Mercury.<\/div>\nNASA\/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory\/Carnegie Institution of Washington<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nMercury<\/a> is about 36 million miles (57 million kilometers) from the Sun. From this distance, it takes sunlight about three minutes to travel to Mercury. Even though it\u2019s sitting right next to the Sun \u2013 relatively speaking \u2013 Mercury gets extremely cold at night. It has a mean surface temperature of 333\u00b0F (167\u00b0C). Daytime temperatures get much hotter than the mean, and can reach highs of 800\u00b0F (430\u00b0C). But without an atmosphere thick enough to hold in the heat at night, temperatures can dip as low as -290\u00b0F (-180\u00b0C).\u00a0<\/p>\nAhhh, Earth. We know about the weather here, right? Even Earth has some temperatures you may not have heard about.<\/p>\n
\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/smd-cms.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/earth-epic-rgb-20231028184621.jpg?w=1080\")
<\/figure>\nAn image of Earth from the Deep Space Climate Observatory, or DSCOVR.<\/div>\nNASA<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nEarth is an average of 93 million miles (150 million kilometers) from the Sun. It takes about eight minutes for light from the Sun to reach our planet.<\/p>\n
Our homeworld is a dynamic and stormy planet with everything from clear, sunny days, to brief rain showers, to tornados, to raging hurricanes, to blizzards, and dust storms. But in spite of its wide variety of storms \u2013 Earth generally has very hospitable temperatures compared to the other planets. The mean surface temperature on Earth is 59\u00b0F (15\u00b0C). But Earth days have some extreme temperatures. According to NOAA, Death Valley holds the record<\/a> for the world\u2019s highest surface air temperature ever recorded on Earth: 134\u00b0F (56.7\u00b0C) observed at Furnace Creek (Greenland Ranch), California, on July 10, 1913. Earth\u2019s lowest recorded temperature<\/a> was -128.6\u00b0F (-89.2\u00b0C) at Vostok Station, Antarctica, on July 21, 1983, according to the World Meteorological Organization.\u00a0<\/p>\nNASA missions have found lots of evidence that Mars was much wetter and warmer, with a thicker atmosphere, billions of years ago. How about now?\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\n\n![\"Animation](\"https:\/\/smd-cms.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Animation_of_Mars_rotating.gif?w=1400\")
<\/figure>\nSide-by-side animated images show how a 2018 global dust storm enveloped the Red Planet. The images were taken by NASA\u2019s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO).<\/div>\nNASA\/JPL-Caltech\/MSSS<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nMars is an average distance of 142 million miles (228 million kilometers) from the Sun. From this distance, it takes about 13 minutes for light to travel from the Sun to Mars.<\/p>\n
The median surface temperature on Mars<\/a> is -85\u00b0F (-65\u00b0C). Because the atmosphere is so thin, heat from the Sun easily escapes Mars. Temperatures on the Red Planet range from the 70s\u00b0F (20s\u00b0C) to -225\u00b0F (-153\u00b0C). Occasionally, winds on Mars are strong enough to create dust storms that cover much of the planet. After such storms, it can be months before all of the dust settles.<\/p>\nTwo NASA rovers on Mars have weather stations. You can check the daily temps at their locations:<\/p>\n
\n- Mars Weather Report From Perseverance<\/a><\/li>\n
- Curiosity Daily Weather Report<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
The ground temperature around the Perseverance rover ranges from about -136\u00b0F to 62\u00b0F (-93\u00b0C to 17\u00b0C). The air temperature near the surface ranges from about\u00a0 -118\u00b0F to 8\u00b0F (-83\u00b0C to -13\u00b0C).<\/p>\n
As planets move farther away from the Sun, it really cools down fast! Since gas giants Jupiter and Saturn don\u2019t have a solid surface, temperatures are taken from a level in the atmosphere equal in pressure to sea level on Earth. The same goes for the ice giants Uranus and Neptune.<\/p>\n
\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/smd-cms.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/jupiter-red-spot-pia22950.jpg?w=2048\")
<\/figure>\nNASA\u2019s Juno spacecraft took this image during a flyby of Jupiter. This view highlights Jupiter\u2019s most famous weather phenomenon, the persistent storm known as the Great Red Spot. Citizen scientist Kevin M. Gill created this image using data from the spacecraft\u2019s JunoCam imager.<\/div>\nEnhanced image by Kevin M. Gill (CC-BY) based on images provided courtesy of NASA\/JPL-Caltech\/SwRI\/MSSS<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nJupiter\u2019s stripes and swirls<\/a> are beautiful, but they are actually cold, windy clouds of ammonia and water, floating in an atmosphere of hydrogen and helium. The planet\u2019s iconic Great Red Spot is a giant storm bigger than Earth that has raged for hundreds of years. The mean temperature on Jupiter is -166\u00b0F (-110\u00b0C).\u00a0<\/p>\nJupiter is an average distance of 484 million miles (778 million kilometers) from the Sun. From this distance, it takes sunlight 43 minutes to travel from the Sun to Jupiter. Jupiter has the shortest day in the solar system. One day on Jupiter takes only about 10 hours (the time it takes for Jupiter to rotate or spin around once), and Jupiter makes a complete orbit around the Sun (a year in Jovian time) in about 12 Earth years (4,333 Earth days).<\/p>\n
Jupiter\u2019s equator is tilted with respect to its orbital path around the Sun by just 3 degrees. This means the giant planet spins nearly upright and does not have seasons as extreme as other planets do.<\/p>\n
As we keep moving out into the solar system, we come to Saturn<\/a> \u2013 the sixth planet from the Sun and the second largest planet in our solar system. Saturn orbits the Sun from an average distance of 886 million miles (1.4 billion kilometers). It takes sunlight 80 minutes to travel from the Sun to Saturn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/smd-cms.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/saturn-storms-pia14905.jpg?w=2048\")
<\/figure>\nThis series of images from NASA\u2019s Cassini spacecraft shows the development of the largest storm seen on Saturn since 1990. These true-color and composite near-true-color views chronicle the storm from its start in late 2010 through mid-2011, showing how the distinct head of the storm quickly grew large but eventually became engulfed by the storm\u2019s tail.<\/div>\nNASA\/JPL-Caltech\/Space Science Institute<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nLike fellow gas giant Jupiter, Saturn is a massive ball made mostly of hydrogen and helium and it doesn\u2019t have a true surface. The mean temperature is -220\u00b0F (-140\u00b0C).\u00a0<\/p>\n
In addition to the bone-chilling cold, the winds in the upper atmosphere of Saturn reach 1,600 feet per second (500 meters per second) in the equatorial region. In contrast, the strongest hurricane-force winds on Earth top out at about 360 feet per second (110 meters per second). And the pressure \u2013 the same kind you feel when you dive deep underwater \u2013 is so powerful it squeezes gas into a liquid.<\/p>\n
\n\n\n![\"An](\"https:\/\/smd-cms.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/An_animated_gif_of_Saturns_north_polar_hexagon_and_vortex.gif?w=1024\")
<\/figure>\nThis colorful movie made with images taken by NASA\u2019s Cassini spacecraft on Dec. 10, 2012. It is the highest-resolution view of the unique six-sided jet stream at Saturn\u2019s north pole known as \u201cthe hexagon.\u201d<\/div>\nNASA\/JPL-Caltech\/SSI\/Hampton University<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nSaturn\u2019s north pole has an interesting atmospheric feature \u2013 a six-sided jet stream. This hexagon-shaped pattern was first noticed in images from the Voyager I spacecraft, and was more closely observed by the Cassini spacecraft in 2012. Spanning about 20,000 miles (30,000 kilometers) across, the hexagon is a wavy jet stream of 200-mile-per-hour winds (about 322 kilometers per hour) with a massive, rotating storm at the center. There is no weather feature like it anywhere else in the solar system.<\/p>\n
Crane your neck to the side while we go check out the weather on Uranus, the sideways planet.<\/p>\n
\n\n\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/smd-cms.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/PIA18182-1.jpg?w=1720\")
<\/figure>\nThis is an image of the planet Uranus taken by the spacecraft Voyager 2 in 1986.<\/div>\nNASA\/JPL-Caltech<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nThe seventh planet from the Sun with the third largest diameter in our solar system, Uranus is very cold and windy. It has a mean temperature of\u00a0 -320\u00b0F (-195\u00b0C). Uranus rotates at a nearly 90-degree angle from the plane of its orbit. This unique tilt makes Uranus appear to spin sideways, orbiting the Sun like a rolling ball. And like Saturn, Uranus has rings. The ice giant is surrounded by 13 faint rings and 27 small moons.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Now we move on to the last major planet in our solar system \u2013 Neptune<\/a>. What\u2019s the weather like there? Well you would definitely need a windbreaker if you went for a visit. Dark, cold, and whipped by supersonic winds, giant Neptune is the eighth and most distant major planet orbiting our Sun. The mean temperature on Neptune is -330\u00b0F (-200\u00b0C).\u00a0<\/p>\nAnd not to be outdone by Jupiter and its Great Red Spot, Neptune has the Great Dark Spot \u2013 and Scooter. Yep, Scooter.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\n\n![\"Blue](\"https:\/\/smd-cms.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/neptune-scooter-pia01142.jpg?w=945\")
<\/figure>\nVoyager 2 photographed these features on Neptune in 1989.\u00a0<\/div>\nNASA\/JPL-Caltech<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nThis photograph of Neptune was created from two images taken by NASA\u2019s Voyager 2 spacecraft in August 1989. It was the first and last time a spacecraft came close to Neptune<\/a>. The image shows three of the features that Voyager 2 monitored. At the north (top) is the Great Dark Spot, accompanied by bright, white clouds that undergo rapid changes in appearance. To the south of the Great Dark Spot is the bright, triangular-shaped feature that Voyager scientists nicknamed \u201cScooter.\u201d<\/a> Still farther south is the feature called \u201cDark Spot 2,\u201d which has a bright core.\u00a0<\/p>\nMore than 30 times as far from the Sun as Earth, Neptune is not visible to the naked eye. In 2011, Neptune completed its first 165-year orbit of the Sun since its discovery.\u00a0<\/p>\n
That wraps up forecasting for the major planets. <\/p>\n
But there is one more place we need to check out. Beyond Neptune is a small world, with a big heart \u2013 dwarf planet Pluto<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"Enhanced](\"https:\/\/smd-cms.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/Enhanced_view_of_Pluto_revealing_a_heart-shaped_region_of_glaciers.jpeg?w=1041\")
<\/figure>\nNew Horizons scientists use enhanced color images to detect differences in the composition and texture of Pluto\u2019s surface.<\/div>\nNASA\/JHUAPL\/SwRI<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nWith a mean surface temperature of -375\u00b0F (-225\u00b0C), Pluto is considered too cold to sustain life. Pluto\u2019s interior is warmer, however, and some think there may be an ocean deep inside.<\/p>\n
From an average distance of 3.7 billion miles (5.9 billion kilometers) away from the Sun, it takes sunlight 5.5 hours to travel to Pluto. If you were to stand on the surface of Pluto at noon, the Sun would be 1\/900 the brightness it is here on Earth. There is a moment each day near sunset here on Earth when the light is the same brightness as midday on Pluto.<\/p>\n
So the next time you\u2019re complaining about the weather in your spot here on Earth, think about Pluto and all the worlds in between.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\n\n\nKeep Exploring<\/div>\nDiscover More Topics From NASA<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\n
<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\tNASA<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
What\u2019s the weather like out there? We mean waaaay out there in our solar system \u2013 where the forecast might not be quite what you think.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s look at the mean temperature of the Sun, and the planets in our solar system. The mean temperature is the average temperature over the surface of the rocky planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars. Dwarf planet Pluto also has a solid surface. But since the gas giants don\u2019t have a surface, the mean is the average temperature at what would be equivalent at sea level on Earth.\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/figure>Let\u2019s start with our Sun. You already know the Sun<\/a> is hot. OK, it\u2019s extremely hot! But temperatures on the Sun also are a bit puzzling.\u00a0<\/p>\n The hottest part of the Sun is its core, where temperatures top 27 million\u00b0F (15 million\u00b0C). The part of the Sun we call its surface \u2013 the photosphere \u2013 is a relatively cool 10,000\u00b0 F (5,500\u00b0C). In one of the Sun\u2019s biggest mysteries, the Sun\u2019s outer atmosphere, the corona, gets hotter the farther it stretches from the surface. The corona reaches up to 3.5 million\u00b0F (2 million\u00b0C) \u2013 much, much hotter than the photosphere.<\/p>\n So some temperatures on the Sun are a bit upside down. How about the planets? Surely things are cooler on the planets that are farther from the Sun.\u00a0<\/p>\n Well, mostly. But then there\u2019s Venus.\u00a0<\/p>\n Venus is the second closest planet to the Sun after Mercury, with an average distance from the Sun of about 67 million miles (108 million kilometers). It takes sunlight about six minutes to travel to Venus.\u00a0<\/p>\n Venus also is Earth\u2019s closest neighbor and is similar in size. It has even been called Earth\u2019s twin. But Venus is shrouded in clouds and has a dense atmosphere that acts as a greenhouse and heats the surface to above the melting point of lead. It has a mean surface temperature of 867\u00b0F (464\u00b0C).\u00a0<\/p>\n So Venus \u2013 not Mercury \u2013 is the hottest planet in our solar system. Save that bit of info for any future trivia contests.<\/p>\n Maybe Venus is hotter, but Mercury is the closest planet to the Sun. Surely it gets hot, too?\u00a0<\/p>\n Mercury<\/a> is about 36 million miles (57 million kilometers) from the Sun. From this distance, it takes sunlight about three minutes to travel to Mercury. Even though it\u2019s sitting right next to the Sun \u2013 relatively speaking \u2013 Mercury gets extremely cold at night. It has a mean surface temperature of 333\u00b0F (167\u00b0C). Daytime temperatures get much hotter than the mean, and can reach highs of 800\u00b0F (430\u00b0C). But without an atmosphere thick enough to hold in the heat at night, temperatures can dip as low as -290\u00b0F (-180\u00b0C).\u00a0<\/p>\n Ahhh, Earth. We know about the weather here, right? Even Earth has some temperatures you may not have heard about.<\/p>\n Earth is an average of 93 million miles (150 million kilometers) from the Sun. It takes about eight minutes for light from the Sun to reach our planet.<\/p>\n Our homeworld is a dynamic and stormy planet with everything from clear, sunny days, to brief rain showers, to tornados, to raging hurricanes, to blizzards, and dust storms. But in spite of its wide variety of storms \u2013 Earth generally has very hospitable temperatures compared to the other planets. The mean surface temperature on Earth is 59\u00b0F (15\u00b0C). But Earth days have some extreme temperatures. According to NOAA, Death Valley holds the record<\/a> for the world\u2019s highest surface air temperature ever recorded on Earth: 134\u00b0F (56.7\u00b0C) observed at Furnace Creek (Greenland Ranch), California, on July 10, 1913. Earth\u2019s lowest recorded temperature<\/a> was -128.6\u00b0F (-89.2\u00b0C) at Vostok Station, Antarctica, on July 21, 1983, according to the World Meteorological Organization.\u00a0<\/p>\n NASA missions have found lots of evidence that Mars was much wetter and warmer, with a thicker atmosphere, billions of years ago. How about now?\u00a0<\/p>\n Mars is an average distance of 142 million miles (228 million kilometers) from the Sun. From this distance, it takes about 13 minutes for light to travel from the Sun to Mars.<\/p>\n The median surface temperature on Mars<\/a> is -85\u00b0F (-65\u00b0C). Because the atmosphere is so thin, heat from the Sun easily escapes Mars. Temperatures on the Red Planet range from the 70s\u00b0F (20s\u00b0C) to -225\u00b0F (-153\u00b0C). Occasionally, winds on Mars are strong enough to create dust storms that cover much of the planet. After such storms, it can be months before all of the dust settles.<\/p>\n Two NASA rovers on Mars have weather stations. You can check the daily temps at their locations:<\/p>\n The ground temperature around the Perseverance rover ranges from about -136\u00b0F to 62\u00b0F (-93\u00b0C to 17\u00b0C). The air temperature near the surface ranges from about\u00a0 -118\u00b0F to 8\u00b0F (-83\u00b0C to -13\u00b0C).<\/p>\n As planets move farther away from the Sun, it really cools down fast! Since gas giants Jupiter and Saturn don\u2019t have a solid surface, temperatures are taken from a level in the atmosphere equal in pressure to sea level on Earth. The same goes for the ice giants Uranus and Neptune.<\/p>\n Jupiter\u2019s stripes and swirls<\/a> are beautiful, but they are actually cold, windy clouds of ammonia and water, floating in an atmosphere of hydrogen and helium. The planet\u2019s iconic Great Red Spot is a giant storm bigger than Earth that has raged for hundreds of years. The mean temperature on Jupiter is -166\u00b0F (-110\u00b0C).\u00a0<\/p>\n Jupiter is an average distance of 484 million miles (778 million kilometers) from the Sun. From this distance, it takes sunlight 43 minutes to travel from the Sun to Jupiter. Jupiter has the shortest day in the solar system. One day on Jupiter takes only about 10 hours (the time it takes for Jupiter to rotate or spin around once), and Jupiter makes a complete orbit around the Sun (a year in Jovian time) in about 12 Earth years (4,333 Earth days).<\/p>\n Jupiter\u2019s equator is tilted with respect to its orbital path around the Sun by just 3 degrees. This means the giant planet spins nearly upright and does not have seasons as extreme as other planets do.<\/p>\n As we keep moving out into the solar system, we come to Saturn<\/a> \u2013 the sixth planet from the Sun and the second largest planet in our solar system. Saturn orbits the Sun from an average distance of 886 million miles (1.4 billion kilometers). It takes sunlight 80 minutes to travel from the Sun to Saturn.<\/p>\n Like fellow gas giant Jupiter, Saturn is a massive ball made mostly of hydrogen and helium and it doesn\u2019t have a true surface. The mean temperature is -220\u00b0F (-140\u00b0C).\u00a0<\/p>\n In addition to the bone-chilling cold, the winds in the upper atmosphere of Saturn reach 1,600 feet per second (500 meters per second) in the equatorial region. In contrast, the strongest hurricane-force winds on Earth top out at about 360 feet per second (110 meters per second). And the pressure \u2013 the same kind you feel when you dive deep underwater \u2013 is so powerful it squeezes gas into a liquid.<\/p>\n Saturn\u2019s north pole has an interesting atmospheric feature \u2013 a six-sided jet stream. This hexagon-shaped pattern was first noticed in images from the Voyager I spacecraft, and was more closely observed by the Cassini spacecraft in 2012. Spanning about 20,000 miles (30,000 kilometers) across, the hexagon is a wavy jet stream of 200-mile-per-hour winds (about 322 kilometers per hour) with a massive, rotating storm at the center. There is no weather feature like it anywhere else in the solar system.<\/p>\n Crane your neck to the side while we go check out the weather on Uranus, the sideways planet.<\/p>\n The seventh planet from the Sun with the third largest diameter in our solar system, Uranus is very cold and windy. It has a mean temperature of\u00a0 -320\u00b0F (-195\u00b0C). Uranus rotates at a nearly 90-degree angle from the plane of its orbit. This unique tilt makes Uranus appear to spin sideways, orbiting the Sun like a rolling ball. And like Saturn, Uranus has rings. The ice giant is surrounded by 13 faint rings and 27 small moons.\u00a0<\/p>\n Now we move on to the last major planet in our solar system \u2013 Neptune<\/a>. What\u2019s the weather like there? Well you would definitely need a windbreaker if you went for a visit. Dark, cold, and whipped by supersonic winds, giant Neptune is the eighth and most distant major planet orbiting our Sun. The mean temperature on Neptune is -330\u00b0F (-200\u00b0C).\u00a0<\/p>\n And not to be outdone by Jupiter and its Great Red Spot, Neptune has the Great Dark Spot \u2013 and Scooter. Yep, Scooter.\u00a0<\/p>\n This photograph of Neptune was created from two images taken by NASA\u2019s Voyager 2 spacecraft in August 1989. It was the first and last time a spacecraft came close to Neptune<\/a>. The image shows three of the features that Voyager 2 monitored. At the north (top) is the Great Dark Spot, accompanied by bright, white clouds that undergo rapid changes in appearance. To the south of the Great Dark Spot is the bright, triangular-shaped feature that Voyager scientists nicknamed \u201cScooter.\u201d<\/a> Still farther south is the feature called \u201cDark Spot 2,\u201d which has a bright core.\u00a0<\/p>\n More than 30 times as far from the Sun as Earth, Neptune is not visible to the naked eye. In 2011, Neptune completed its first 165-year orbit of the Sun since its discovery.\u00a0<\/p>\n That wraps up forecasting for the major planets. <\/p>\n But there is one more place we need to check out. Beyond Neptune is a small world, with a big heart \u2013 dwarf planet Pluto<\/a>.<\/p>\n With a mean surface temperature of -375\u00b0F (-225\u00b0C), Pluto is considered too cold to sustain life. Pluto\u2019s interior is warmer, however, and some think there may be an ocean deep inside.<\/p>\n From an average distance of 3.7 billion miles (5.9 billion kilometers) away from the Sun, it takes sunlight 5.5 hours to travel to Pluto. If you were to stand on the surface of Pluto at noon, the Sun would be 1\/900 the brightness it is here on Earth. There is a moment each day near sunset here on Earth when the light is the same brightness as midday on Pluto.<\/p>\n So the next time you\u2019re complaining about the weather in your spot here on Earth, think about Pluto and all the worlds in between.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/figure><\/figure><\/figure><\/figure><\/figure>\n
<\/figure><\/figure><\/figure><\/figure><\/figure><\/figure>Discover More Topics From NASA<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n