Astronomers in Hawaii have detected eight massive storms on the surface of Uranus, the largest ever recorded, in a surprising and unexpected find on the planets normally uninteresting surface.

Big storms are more closely associated with volatile gas giants like Jupiter and Saturn, not with the relatively boring atmosphere of Uranus — but that’s exactly what telescopes at the W. M. Keck Observatory picked up, according to the Mirror.

The icy planet of Uranus usually doesn’t see heavy atmospheric activity, but astronomers found that even amateurs could spot the bright cloud activity despite the fact that the planet is 30 times further away from the sun than the Earth is.

Astronomers counted eight large storms in the northern hemisphere of the planet August 5 and 6, and one was the brightest ever measured on Uranus. It was responsible for 30 percent of all light reflected by the entire planet.

Atmospheric pressure on Uranus is about half that of the Earth, allowing scientists to use a specific wavelength of light to peak below the planet’s clouds into the tropopause. The research team placed the pressure range beneath the tropopause at 300 to 500 mbar. Amateur astronomers spotted a bright spot that scientists believe indicate storm activity even deeper in the atmosphere.

Typically, astronomers would expect to see this happen during Uranus’ equinox, which happens every 42 years and last occurred in 2007, because that is when the sun shines directly on the equator. But instead of activity dying down since then, the massive storms suggest that Uranus is still very active for reasons scientists haven’t yet determined.

Scientists presented the findings at the American Astronomical Society’s Division of Planetary Sciences in Tucson, Ariz.

Uranus is four times larger than Earth and is the seventh planet from the sun, between Saturn and Neptune. The planet has an atmosphere consisting of hydrogen and helium as well as a little bit of methane, giving it a blue color.

That makes the planet similar in composition to its neighbor, Neptune, and it makes them very distinct from gas giants Jupiter and Saturn. Astronomers often refer to them as “ice giants.”

Uranus is the coldest planet in the Solar System, with a “high” of -224.2 degrees Celsius, and its interior is mainly ice and rock. It has a complex cloud structure, with water in the lowest clouds and methane in the uppermost lawyer, scientists believe.

Winds on the planet are strong, to say the least: they can reach speeds of up to 250 meters per second, or 560 miles per hour. In contrast, Hurricane Katrina here on Earth reached 175 miles per hour at its peak.

Uranus isn’t even the most extreme example. Neptune’s winds can reach a whopping 1,500 miles per hour, the fastest in the entire solar system. The fastest speed ever recorded was 2,193.2 miles per hour in an SR-71 Blackbird.

The storms are surprising because Uranus is typically considered a fairly “bland” planet. Images from Voyager 2 in 1986 showed Uranus is basically devoid of any interesting features that lacked the type of storms that could be found on other giant planets. Observers also showed no evidence that there were any changes in the seasons.

It is the only planet whose name is derived from a Greek mythological figure, rather than a Roman one.

Scientists used the two massive telescopes at the W.M. Keck Observatory to observe the planet. The observatory sits at an elevation of 13,600 feet near the top of Mauna Kea in Hawaii. The telescopes are the largest in use, boasting primary mirrors that measure 33 feet. While that is slightly smaller than the Gran Telescopia Canarias in Spain’s Canary Islands, it can collect more light than the GTC’s primary mirror. This enables it to see deep into the vast expanses of space and observe the surface of even dark planets like Uranus. The observatory is managed by the California Association for Research in Astronomy.