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Astronomers Find 'Hot Spot' on Saturn
AP on Yahoo ^ | 2/4/05 | Jaymes Song - AP

Posted on 02/04/2005 9:33:28 AM PST by NormsRevenge

HONOLULU - Astronomers using a giant telescope atop a volcano have discovered a hot spot at the tip of Saturn's south pole.

The infrared images captured by the Keck I telescope at the W.M. Keck Observatory atop Mauna Kea on the Big Island suggest a warm polar vortex — a large-scale weather pattern likened to a jet stream on Earth that occurs in the upper atmosphere. It's the first such hot vortex ever discovered in the solar system.

The team of scientists say the images are the sharpest thermal views of Saturn ever taken from the ground. Their work will be a published in Friday's editions of the journal Science.

This warm polar cap is believed to contain the highest temperatures on Saturn; the scientists did not give a temperature estimate.

On Earth, the Arctic Polar Vortex is typically located over eastern North America in Canada and plunges cold arctic air to the northern Plains in the United States.

Polar vortices are found on Earth, Jupiter, Mars and Venus, and are colder than their surroundings. The new images from the Keck Observatory show the first evidence of a polar vortex at much warmer temperatures.

"Saturn's is the first hot polar vortex that we've seen because it's been sitting in the sunlight for about 18 years," said Glenn S. Orton, a scientist at NASA (news - web sites)'s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., and lead author.

Saturn, which takes many earth years to orbit the sun, just had its summer solstice in 2002.

"If the increased southern temperatures are solely the result of seasonality, then the temperature should increase gradually with increasing latitude, but it doesn't," Orton said. "We see that the temperature increases abruptly by several degrees near 70 degrees south and again at 87 degrees south.

"A really hot thing within a couple degrees of the pole is something I don't understand at all," he said.

Scientists may learn more from the data coming from the infrared spectrometer on the Cassini spacecraft currently orbiting Saturn, information that is expected to complement the Keck discovery, Orton said.

___

On the Net:

Keck Observatory: http://www.keckobservatory.org

Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Saturn page: http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov


TOPICS: Government; US: California; US: Hawaii; Your Opinion/Questions
KEYWORDS: astronomers; find; hotspot; keck; polarvortex; saturn
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To: NormsRevenge

Somebody tell Ted Kennedy. He's always looking for hot spots.


21 posted on 02/04/2005 9:50:21 AM PST by popdonnelly
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To: NormsRevenge

Is Hawaii better able to discover this than Cassini currently orbiting Saturn, just curious?


22 posted on 02/04/2005 9:54:36 AM PST by Mister Baredog (PLEASE be sure you have a flag up on your FReeper homepage.!!!)
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To: Grzegorz 246


Looks interesting, is there any oil ?

LOL ! Looks like oil to me . . let's invade ! < / liberal conspiracy theory >

23 posted on 02/04/2005 9:54:55 AM PST by ChadGore (VISUALIZE 62,041,268 Bush fans.)
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To: NormsRevenge

Well, it's better than finding a hot spot on Uranus.
:)


24 posted on 02/04/2005 9:56:01 AM PST by libsrscum (I think, therefore I FReep.)
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To: ClearCase_guy
I'm also interested in the wedge-shaped chunk that's missing from the rings. Do Astronomers have any explanation for how such a neat slice of ring-material could be suddenly removed???

If you look at it just right, you can see stars....

25 posted on 02/04/2005 9:56:52 AM PST by r9etb
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To: RightWhale

Perhaps whatever it was actually penetrated the atmoshpere at the pole. There must be objects moving in orbits that are not along the plane of the ecliptic.


26 posted on 02/04/2005 9:57:35 AM PST by ProudVet77 (Survivor of the great blizzard of aught five)
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To: libsrscum
Well, it's better than finding a hot spot on Uranus.

Just ask the folks who competed in the Wing Bowl this morning....

27 posted on 02/04/2005 9:58:43 AM PST by r9etb
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To: George Smiley

Women, children, the elderly, and minorities most affected. And it's all the fault of Chimpy McBushitler. . .

What's the bet that someone on DU has ALREADY posted this ???(evil grin)


28 posted on 02/04/2005 9:59:53 AM PST by Salgak (don't mind me: the orbital mind control lasers are making me write this. . .)
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To: r9etb

Indeed. . .

It's FULL OF STARS !!!!


29 posted on 02/04/2005 10:00:44 AM PST by Salgak (don't mind me: the orbital mind control lasers are making me write this. . .)
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To: NormsRevenge

They must have a lot of SUV on Saturn -- plus a lot of Freon in their ACs.


30 posted on 02/04/2005 10:00:56 AM PST by expatpat
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To: RightWhale
Gas giants may be considered "failed stars." They're not large enough for the hydrogen in their atmospheres to ignite and burn in a chain nuclear reaction. If the sun dies one day, humanity may find a way to combine the gas giants in our solar system to give birth to a new sun.

Denny Crane: "There are two places to find the truth. First God and then Fox News."

31 posted on 02/04/2005 10:03:36 AM PST by goldstategop (In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives On In My Heart Forever)
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To: ProudVet77

It's possible. The Schumaker comet that hit Jupiter struck around a high latitude. Jupiter swallowed that without a trace in a couple days, so, if this hot spot on Saturn is due to something like that, it would have to have been fairly massive. Perhaps it is more like those stellar objects with an x-ray beam coming out of the poles, a quasar kind of reaction.


32 posted on 02/04/2005 10:05:51 AM PST by RightWhale (Please correct if cosmic balance requires.)
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To: ClearCase_guy
Do Astronomers have any explanation for how such a neat slice of ring-material could be suddenly removed???

Funding cut.

33 posted on 02/04/2005 10:07:35 AM PST by Grut
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To: RightWhale

My theory is that over the period of increased heating by its summers the gasses expand and by the force of its gravitation field heat up,instead of the heat and gasses expelling in an outward motion towards space they "pool" at its poles to perform a controlled venting where as the atmosphere of Saturn doesnt ignite or feed upon itself thus maintaning its large mass over eons.


34 posted on 02/04/2005 10:22:16 AM PST by aft_lizard (This space waiting for a post election epiphany)
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To: NormsRevenge
Uh, don't we have an expensive an impressive probe orbiting Saturn? Why isn't it taking these pictures?
35 posted on 02/04/2005 11:20:10 AM PST by Question_Assumptions
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To: martin_fierro

Interesting. :-)

Thanks for the ping.


36 posted on 02/06/2005 8:52:20 AM PST by RadioAstronomer
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To: Swordmaker; FairOpinion; sourcery
Ping!
37 posted on 10/01/2005 10:42:10 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (Down with Dhimmicrats! I last updated by FR profile on Sunday, August 14, 2005.)
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To: NormsRevenge
"A really hot thing within a couple degrees of the pole is something I don't understand at all," he said.

Perhaps the Fermi Paradox has now been solved?

38 posted on 10/01/2005 10:59:11 AM PDT by sourcery (Givernment: The way the average voter spells "government.")
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To: sourcery
Perhaps the Fermi Paradox has now been solved?

More likely Maxwell's demons...

39 posted on 10/01/2005 3:01:05 PM PDT by Swordmaker (Beware of Geeks bearing GIFs.)
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To: NormsRevenge
The article claims it is the first hot vortex found... untrue.

Hot poles of Enceladus

Still in the Saturnian system...

40 posted on 10/01/2005 3:18:20 PM PDT by Swordmaker (Beware of Geeks bearing GIFs.)
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