Cassini Observes Hurricane-Like Storm On Saturn

Aglassis writes "The Cassini spacecraft recently observed a hurricane-like storm on the south pole of Saturn. What makes this storm particularly interesting is that this is the first time that a clearly defined eyewall has been seen outside of the Earth in the Solar System. Neither the Great White Spot of Saturn nor the Great Red Spot of Jupiter have had an observable eyewall. NASA, JPL, and the Space Science Institute have released a short movie of the motion around the eyewall (mirrored at YouTube)."

Comments

Unmanned Space Flight

[GreggBz]

For those interested, unmannedspaceflight has active discussions on well.. unmanned space flight, and in particular, this mission. Cassini is another successful unmanned mission. Space is really starting to get exciting again.

Re:Also Mirrored (better) At imeem.com -

[illectro]

Imeem may not have screwed up the video, but I on the other hand managed to screw up the link.

Re:What is the Average Cloud Height on Saturn?

[meringuoid]

My questions are: 1) how thick was the remaining cloud layer, and 2) would it be possible to get a view of Saturn's surface?

Saturn is mostly gas; the planet as a whole is considerably less dense than water. There isn't really any solid surface to speak of; we generally consider the cloud tops to be the surface for all intents and purposes.

Somewhere way, way down there, there may be a solid surface of metallic hydrogen, or possibly crystalline carbon, and perhaps inside that a rocky core somewhat larger than the Earth, but that would be a long way below the layer in which visible storms take place, and at a pressure so great that no foreseeable technology could get a probe down there. Lots left to discover for our descendants, then.