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Deep Inside Saturn's Stormy Eye: Big Pic


Image: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute.

by Jason Major
Nov. 28, 2012

Nov. 28, 2012 -- This may look like an Earthly hurricane but it's actually something much, much larger: it's an enormous cyclone that's swirling above Saturn's north pole, captured in a raw image by NASA's Cassini spacecraft on November 27, 2012.

Rotating rapidly and lacking any solid surface Saturn has some of the fastest wind speeds in the solar system, blowing at over 500 meters a second (1,100 miles an hour) in an easterly direction around its equator. At higher latitudes the winds repeatedly shift directions, creating spiraling storms from the powerful shears that in turn help drive the wind bands.

At the poles this wind energy coalesces into vast spinning vortices rimmed with churning clouds, their centers plunging deep into Saturn's atmosphere.

Thanks to Cassini's new trajectory that takes it above Saturn's poles we can once again get a good look at these dynamic and fascinating features, helping scientists better understand seasonal changes on the ringed planet.

Copyright © 2012 Discovery Communications, LLC

http://news.discovery.com/space/big-pic-cassini-saturn-storm-121128.html [with comments]