Extraterrestrial forecasts

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

Credit: 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.

Credit: 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.

Credit: 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.

Credit: 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."

Credit: 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.

Credit: 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.

Credit: 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.

Credit: 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.

Credit: 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.

Credit: 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.

Credit: 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.

Extraordinary plants, trees, and fungi

Think you've seen it all? These plants and organisms will blow your mind

Credit: kazuend

Maybe you've mastered growing tomatoes or finally figured out why your geraniums keep dying, and that’s all very well. Still, the botanical world has been keeping some seriously wild secrets from you! Our botanical world is packed with surprises that'll make you want to grab your gardening gloves and explore. These green (and sometimes not-so-green) wonders prove that the most fascinating life forms might just be growing right under our noses.

Credit: Earl Wilcox

Selaginella lepidophylla can survive complete dehydration for months, looking absolutely dead as a doornail. But add a little water, and within hours it springs back to vibrant green life, like nature's own magic trick. Native Americans called it the "resurrection plant," and it has amazed desert travelers for centuries. It's basically the ultimate comeback kid of the plant world—making your Monday morning coffee revival look like amateur hour.

Credit: Brandon Green

California's bristlecone pines make your grandparents look like spring chickens. The oldest known specimen, nicknamed "Methuselah," has been growing for over 4,850 years. That means it was already a teenager when the pyramids were built! These gnarled survivors thrive in harsh, high-altitude conditions that would make most plants throw in the towel faster than you can say "retirement community."

Credit: Janik

The Venus flytrap has reflexes that would make a NASCAR driver jealous. When an insect triggers its tiny hairs twice within 20 seconds, SNAP! The trap closes in just one-tenth of a second. Native to the Carolina bogs, this carnivorous charmer gets its nutrients from bugs instead of soil, proving that sometimes you really do need to think outside the pot.

Credit: Igor Omilaev

Over 80 species of fungi light up the forest floor like nature's own Christmas decorations. The foxfire fungus creates an eerie green glow visible on dark nights, helping attract insects for spore dispersal. These bioluminescent beauties have been mystifying forest walkers for centuries.

Credit: Freepik

Amorphophallus titanum produces the world's smelliest flower, reeking like rotting meat mixed with dirty gym socks. This aromatic assault attracts carrion beetles and flies from miles away, who become unwitting pollinators as they crawl around looking for the "rotting carcass" that doesn't exist. The bloom can reach 10 feet tall and only flowers every few years, making it the botanical equivalent of a once-in-a-lifetime rock concert—if rock concerts smelled like garbage trucks.

Credit: Hikmet

Mimosa pudica, nicknamed the "shy plant," collapses its leaves instantly when touched, as if it's playing dead or having a case of the vapors. This dramatic response happens in seconds and helps protect it from hungry herbivores. It's like having a plant that throws a tantrum every time someone tries to pet it—perfect for those who prefer low-maintenance relationships with their greenery.

Credit: Taisia Karaseva

These California giants can live over 3,000 years and grow taller than the Statue of Liberty. The largest, "General Sherman," weighs as much as 10 blue whales and has a trunk so wide that 20 people holding hands couldn't wrap around it. Their bark can be two feet thick—thicker than most apartment walls—and is naturally fire-resistant.

Credit: Matteo Grando

Starting as a tiny seed dropped by a bird high in a tree canopy, the strangler fig slowly grows downward, wrapping around its host tree like a very patient python. Over decades, it gradually strangles and kills its host, leaving a hollow center where the original tree once stood. It's like the plant kingdom's version of a hostile takeover, except it takes about 50 years to complete the paperwork.

Credit: wirestock

These African icons look like someone planted them upside-down, with their massive trunks and spindly branches resembling roots reaching for the sky. Baobabs can store up to 32,000 gallons of water in their trunks—enough to fill a swimming pool! Some specimens are over 2,000 years old and so huge that people have carved pubs, prisons, and even bus stops inside their hollow trunks.

Credit: Olivie Strauss

In Oregon's Blue Mountains, a single honey mushroom (Armillaria ostoyae) spans 2,385 acres underground—larger than 1,600 football fields! This fungal giant is estimated to be between 2,000 and 8,000 years old and mostly lives as an invisible network of root-like threads beneath the soil. It's basically nature's internet, connecting and communicating through the forest floor long before we figured out WiFi.