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Cassini Observes Hurricane-Like Storm On Saturn

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the go-go-little-spacebuggy dept.

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)."

5 of 69 comments (clear)

  1. That's no hurricane! by scoser · · Score: 5, Funny

    It's an alien transportation portal!

    I for one welcome our gas giant portal-creating overlords and any new cliches they can teach us!

  2. Saturn Visibility by lecithin · · Score: 4, Interesting

    For you folks that actually get up when it is still dark, Saturn is really nice this season:

    Saturn (magnitude +0.5, in Leo), rises around 11:30 or midnight and is in fine view high in the southeast by early dawn. Regulus, about half as bright, sparkles 5 below Saturn after they rise. By dawn Regulus is to Saturn's lower left.

    http://skytonight.com/observing/ataglance

    --
    It could be worse, it could be Monday.
  3. Unmanned Space Flight by GreggBz · · Score: 3, Informative

    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.

  4. Re:That Bush! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    What next, blizzards on Venus??

    Gas clouds erupting from Uranus?

  5. Re:Also Mirrored (better) At imeem.com - by illectro · · Score: 3, Informative

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