A team of astronomers analyzing infrared images of Uranus have spotted eight large storms swirling in the planet's northern hemisphere in August 2014. Astronomer Imke de Pater of the University of California, Berkeley and his team reported in the journal Icarus that 2014 was Uranus' stormiest year ever. Their findings were unexpected, indicating limited human understanding about the planets that exist inside our own Solar System.

Uranus became the first planet to be discovered in the 'recent' era of science. While French astronomer Pierre Lemonnier had observed Uranus, he was unable to distinguish the planet from the other stars he was studying. In 1781, William Herschel, who initially believed Uranus to be a comet, found that it was a planet orbiting farther away from the sun than Saturn.

Despite being aware about its existence for over 300 years, no detailed view of the planet's Northern hemisphere exists till date due to its strange rotation. It takes Uranus 84 Earth years to travel around the Sun and one of its poles remains in darkness for half this time.

In August 2014, de Pater and his team used the Keck telescope to observe Uranus and saw clouds that were very high up. The astronomers were able to infer the thickness and height of the clouds in the atmosphere, as well as their composition. As the clouds rose higher, methane gas condensed into methane ice to make them glow so brightly that even amateur astronomers could view them from Earth.

The observation by de Pater and his team marked the first time that Uranus was studied using modern telescopes from Earth. The gigantic storms observed on the planet and the inability of astronomers to explain the reason behind the phenomenon only goes to show how little we know about this giant icy planet in our solar system.