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Cassini Captures Saturn's Northern Lights

Posted by Soulskill on from the cassini-rules dept.

al0ha writes "In the first video showing the auroras above the northern latitudes of Saturn, Cassini has spotted the tallest known 'northern lights' in the solar system, flickering in shape and brightness high above the ringed planet. The new video reveals changes in Saturn's aurora every few minutes, in high resolution, with three dimensions. The images show a previously unseen vertical profile to the auroras, which ripple in the video like tall curtains. These curtains reach more than 1,200 kilometers (750 miles) above the edge of the planet's northern hemisphere."

3 of 33 comments (clear)

  1. Captured?? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Interesting

    Is Cassini a terrorist holding Saturn's northern light as a hostage?

  2. Re:Christmas gifts,shoes,handbags,Tshirts,ect... by Ethanol-fueled · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Let's DDoS that fucker. Grab the Low Orbit Ion Cannon from bittorent and set it to kill. Who's with me?

  3. Brought a tear to my eye by c6gunner · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Amazing. Maybe I only find it so emotional because I've recently watched the posthumous autotune of Carl Sagan's Cosmos. Check it here if you haven't seen it. And here's the relevant quote:

    "How lucky we are to live in this time. The first moment in human history. When we are, in fact visiting other worlds."