Extraterrestrial forecasts

Ever wished it rained diamonds? On Neptune and Uranus, it’s no joke!

Image: Viktor Mindt

Weather on Earth might be wild, but compared to other planets, it’s downright boring. Across our solar system—and beyond—insane storms, metallic rain, and atmosphere-shredding winds violently shape alien worlds. Here are 10 of the weirdest and most extreme weather events ever observed in space.

Image: Bas van den Eijkhof

Location: Neptune & Uranus

In the atmospheres of these ice giants, intense pressure crushes methane into solid carbon, forming diamonds that fall like hail.

Estimates suggest that billions of carats worth of diamonds may exist in the deep interiors of these planets, possibly forming layered structures similar to geological strata.

Image: NASA Hubble Space Telescope

Location: HD 189733b

This exoplanet is bombarded by winds blowing at over 5,400 mph—about seven times faster than the speed of sound.

Fortunately, all of this is happening far from Earth—HD 189733b is a 'hot Jupiter' located 63 light-years away. Its atmosphere endures extreme heat on one side and frigid cold on the other, fueling violent winds that circle the planet.

Image: Planet Volumes

Location: Venus

Venus has clouds of sulfuric acid that rain—but the droplets evaporate before they hit the surface.

Temperatures on Venus reach 870°F, hot enough to melt lead. Acid droplets form high in the atmosphere but vaporize at lower altitudes, creating a corrosive "rain cycle."

Image: NASA Hubble Space Telescope

Location: Jupiter

A storm larger than Earth has been raging on Jupiter for over 350 years.

First observed in the 1600s, the Great Red Spot is a massive anticyclone with wind speeds exceeding 400 mph. It’s so large that it could easily swallow our planet whole.

Image: Planet Volumes

Location: Saturn

A massive six-sided jet stream spins around Saturn’s north pole. NASA’s Cassini mission captured this bizarre atmospheric pattern, which spans nearly 20,000 miles.

Surprisingly, it's a persistent weather feature—not a surface structure.

Image: Daniele Colucci

Location: Mars

Mars is famous for its massive, planet-wide dust storms. These weather events can last for weeks and obscure the entire planet from view.

NASA’s Opportunity rover went silent during one of these dust storms in 2018 and never recovered. The catch? Mars doesn’t have enough atmosphere for the winds to be truly dangerous—sorry, The Martian.

Image: Andy Holmes

Location: Boomerang Nebula

The coldest known natural place in the universe is the outer cloud of a dying star. The Boomerang Nebula, located 5,000 light-years away, reaches temperatures near 1 Kelvin—colder than the cosmic background.

This happens because the star’s gas expands so rapidly that it chills below the temperature of empty space itself.

Image: Morteza Mohammadi

Location: WASP-76b

On this ultra-hot exoplanet, iron vaporizes on the dayside and rains down as molten metal on the nightside.

These extreme temperatures are reached because WASP-76b is tidally locked, with day-side temperatures over 4,000°F.

Image: Javid Naderi

Location: The Sun

The Sun hosts giant tornadoes made of superheated plasma. These solar events can be up to 10,000 miles tall and spin at thousands of miles per hour.

They’re driven by magnetic fields and can feed into solar flares and coronal mass ejections—fiery explosions that can even impact Earth.

Image: NASA

Location: The Moon

The Moon may experience electrostatic dust storms during lunar dawn and dusk. When the Sun hits the lunar surface, it creates an electric field that lifts tiny dust particles off the ground.

This phenomenon was first suspected during the Apollo missions and has been confirmed through recent satellite observations.

DECODING DOCTORS

Check Out These 10 Medical Terms Explained!

Image: Hush Naidoo Jade Photography

Have you ever had a doctor explain that you "suffer from otitis" to simply mean you have an ear inflammation? The terminology used by doctors can be very confusing to patients, as medical words are full of roots, prefixes, and suffixes that come from Greek or Latin. If you want to understand your doctor better during your next visit, or just show off your lexicon to your friends, read on! Today, we are reviewing and explaining what these 10 aspects of medical terminology mean.

Image: isens usa

"Hypo-" is a prefix that comes from Greek, meaning "under" or "below."

In medicine, this term is used to refer to low levels or deficient functioning.

For example, you may see this prefix in "Hypoglycemia" (low blood sugar) or "Hypotension" (low blood pressure). To refer to an organ or gland that is below its normal function, we have the word "Hypothyroidism" as an example, which indicates an underactive thyroid gland.

Image: Mockup Graphics

"Hyper-" is the opposite of the previous prefix. Hyper- also comes from Greek, meaning "excessive" or "above normal."

This prefix is used when levels, functioning, or certain conditions are elevated or above values considered normal. For example, "Hyperthermia" refers to elevated body temperature. "Hypertension" is blood pressure that exceeds the values indicated as healthy. Finally, "Hyperthyroidism" is the overactivity of the thyroid gland, which leads to the overproduction of thyroid hormones.

Image: Kelly Sikkema

"-itis" is one of the best-known suffixes in medicine. Greek is again the language of origin here, this time meaning "inflammation."

Doctors often add this suffix to the scientific name of a body part to indicate it is swollen. As already mentioned, "Otitis" is the inflammation of the ear, as frequent as it is painful. "Appendicitis" indicates inflammation of the appendix, often resulting in surgery to remove it. Another example is "Bronchitis," which refers to inflammation of the bronchial tubes.

Image: julien Tromeur

"Gastro-" is a prefix that, rather than referring to a condition, injury, or disease, indicates a specific body part where all those things can occur.

Gastro- comes from Greek and means "stomach" or "tummy." Therefore, this term refers to conditions, procedures, or tests that affect or are performed on the stomach or gastrointestinal tract.

For example -using one of the suffixes already mentioned above- we have the term "Gastritis," the inflammation of the stomach, which causes so much pain. "Gastroenterology," on the other hand, is the general study of the stomach and gastrointestinal tract.

Image: Online Marketing

"-osis" is a suffix that comes to indicate that something is not working as it should or was affected in some way.

Coming from Greek, "-osis" can mean "condition," "disease," or "abnormal."

For example, we can cite "Fibrosis," the formation of excess fibrous connective tissue, which can occur in some scars. On the other hand, "Thrombosis" is a well-known term indicating the presence of a blood clot (thrombus) within a blood vessel.

Image: Mathew Schwartz

Like "Gastro-," "Osteo-" indicates a specific part or area of the human body.

This prefix comes from the Greek osteon meaning "bone." Thus, any medical term that includes this prefix indicates a condition, disease, procedure, or treatment that affects or is applied to the bones.

For example, "Osteoporosis" combines this prefix with the familiar "-osis" suffix, indicating a condition characterized by porous and fragile bones. On the other hand, "Osteotomy" refers to a surgical procedure on a bone.

Image: Piron Guillaume

The Greek skopein, meaning "to look" or "to examine," gives rise to the medical suffix "-scopy."

Following its word of origin, the suffix "-scopy" doesn't refer to a disease or body part but to an examination or viewing of some organ or function.

To give some examples, we can mention the well-known "Endoscopy," a procedure through which an internal part of the body is examined using a flexible tube with a lamp and camera attached. "Bronchoscopy," on the other hand, indicates the examination of bronchi.

Image: Anton

Originating from the Greek haima, any medical word that includes the prefix "Hemat-" refers to something related to blood.

"Hematology," for example, is the science that studies the blood, its functions, its elements, and the conditions or diseases that can affect it. "Hematoma" is a bit of blood that collects in a certain spot because it has escaped from blood vessels, commonly known as a bruise. "Hematopoiesis," on its part, refers to the process by which new blood cells are formed.

Image: Look Studio

We have to admit we've left a few spoilers, as the suffix "-ology" was mentioned before. But let's take a better look at it.

Coming from the Greek logos ("study" or "reason"), "-ology" applies to different medical fields dedicated to studying specific parts or functions of our body.

One of the best known, "Cardiology," is the study and care of the heart and related conditions. Another example is the word "Dermatology," the area of medicine that studies and treats the skin.

Image: Martha Dominguez de Gouveia

The suffix "-ectomy" indicates a surgical procedure. Coming from the Greek ektomē, meaning "a cutting out" or "excision," practices ending with this suffix are performed to remove a specific body part.

While that sounds a bit strong, these types of surgeries are actually very common, and many of them are performed quickly. "Appendectomy," for example, involves the surgical removal of an infected appendix. There are other examples, such as "Mastectomy," which is the surgical removal of breast tissue.