Saturn's Super Storm

An anonymous reader sends in a brief writeup about a massive storm that's been visible on Saturn's surface for a few months now. "As it rapidly expanded, the storm's core developed into a giant, powerful thunderstorm, producing a 3,000-mile-wide (5,000-kilometer-wide) dark vortex possibly similar to Jupiter's Great Red Spot." The storm has been photographed by the Cassini probe, Hubble and even amateur astronomers here on Earth. (The Planetary Society Weblog also posted an 8,000-pixel-wide panorama a while back.) "The violence of the storm — the strongest disturbances ever detected in Saturn's stratosphere — took researchers by surprise. What started as an ordinary disturbance deep in Saturn's atmosphere punched through the planet's serene cloud cover to roil the high layer known as the stratosphere." A study on the thermal structure of the storm (abstract) was just published in the journal Science.

Comments

Surely

[tenaciousj]

We must fight to end global warming or this will only continue to get worse!

Re:Surely

[agent_blue]

we already ruled out the sun as a driver of climate change, so the only conclusions are that the people of Saturn have been producing too much greenhouses gases, and thus destroying their planet. ipso facto, there are Martians on Saturn.

Re:Surely

[tenaciousj]

Yes, AC. Current evidence leads us to believe that the evidence that a planet once held alien life is the non-existence of water. Ergo, the alien species that once occupied the planet has warmed the planet to such a degree that the atmosphere was destroyed and the water then evaporated into space.

There is almost irrefutable proof that this is exactly what happened on Mars.

In Perspective

[Anonymous Coward]

When you look at these photos, there is one aspect that is lost due to the size of the planet itself. At 3000 miles wide, this "storm" is about 40% the diameter of the Earth.

Re:In Perspective

[obergfellja]

have you also noticed that it looks like a cum shot in the cassini probe: http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2010/12/28/a-saturnian-storm-larger-than-worlds/

Dangit, God! I told him to keep it in his pants, but he couldn't contain himself when he saw Saturn.

Re:In Perspective

[Infiniti2000]

When you look at these photos, there is one aspect that is lost due to the size of the planet itself. At 3000 miles wide, this "storm" is about 40% the diameter of the Earth.

Diameter of the Earth is a nearly meaningless comparison. Not only is the Earth not a perfect sphere, but also most people will have a hard time gauging the spatial reference to something more meaningful, such as "about the size of the entire continent of North America."

Re:In Perspective

[onepoint]

if you were to look at this in perspective, the storm seems to be the same size ratio as one on earth.

Re:In Perspective

[Anonymous Coward]

Doesn't need some cleaver caption trying to one-up the last one. Its wonderful to live in a time when we can witness this.

Indeed, we're lucky to be born after the big bang.

Re:In Perspective

[war4peace]

Thank God it wasn't on Uranus...

Re:In Perspective

[SheeEttin]

That's because fluids are the same, no matter where in the universe you go.

(Now if you were to go to another universe, I can't guarantee the local laws of physics will apply there as well. Which does not bode well for hyperdimensional porn studios.)

Impact?

[Pro923]

How could we know if it was related to some sort of an impact?

Climate change!

[Ixokai]

Look what we've done now, our polluting ways have gone and broken Saturn too. :(

Re:true sign of the end of the world

[Issarlk]

It's just the location of Heaven. The lord is giving a good dusting to all the vacant houses there in preparation for tomorrow, hopefully it'll have settled by 6PM.

Re:true sign of the end of the world

[HeckRuler]

Oye, end-timers. Annoyingly resilient to the perpetuated existence of the world.

But honestly, maybe these little crazes are a good thing, society-wise. I mean, it's one of those things that, no matter what you do, someone somewhere is going to look at something and claim the end of the world is nigh. Fact of life.
I remember hearing about some sort of scenario involving the alignment of the planets when I was a kid and, well, I was pretty stupid and got scared. Well maybe "scared" is a bit strong. I was concerned. As concerned as an 9 year old can be about doomsday. And I remember it passing. Nothing happened, and I was honestly a little let down. But I grew up a little then. I realized that the fantastical is simply that; fantasy. And that on some perverse level people want it all to burn and crumble.

I Imagine the Y2K delirium might have gotten more under my skin if that had never happened. In short, I was jaded to the sheer audacity of it all.

So pay attention kiddos, there's an important lesson here.

Re:true sign of the end of the world

[amicusNYCL]

Exactly. Look at the storm, what color is it? It's white. What else is white? Angels. This is not a storm, this is a gathering of angels to.. well, storm the Earth. They better get moving if they hope to be here tomorrow.

Re:true sign of the end of the world

[niktemadur]

I'd prefer to think that it's a gathering cluster of white monoliths!

Re:What's the common denominator?

[Mindcontrolled]

Appreciation of the concept of coincidence? ;)