This newfound storm's eye offers a window into Saturn.
Posted on 11/10/2006 12:19:03 AM PST by Fred Nerks
A freaky storm two-thirds the diameter of Earth and unlike anything ever seen has been spotted on Saturn.
The tempest, some 5,000 miles wide (8,000 kilometers), has an oddly human-looking hurricane-like eye [image]. But it is very different from a terrestrial hurricane, scientists said today.
NASA's Cassini spacecraft photographed the huge storm. It swirls with 350 mph winds at the ringed planet's south pole. It has a remarkably well-defined eye ringed by clouds that soar 20 to 45 miles high (30 to 75 kilometers), or up to five times taller than hurricane clouds on Earth.
"It looks like a hurricane, but it doesn't behave like a hurricane," said Andrew Ingersoll, a member of Cassini's imaging team at the California Institute of Technology. "Whatever it is, we're going to focus on the eye of this storm and find out why it's there."
The storm's eye is clear of clouds, as with a hurricane on Earth. And the eye-wall clouds are also similar to those that surround the eye of a storm here. Researchers don't know if rising, moist air is fueling the clouds, as in a normal hurricane. But the storm's eye, eye-wall and spiral arms are all "hurricane-like," they say.
Yet this storm rotates around Saturn's south pole—astronomers say the pole seems to be within the storm's eye and the system seems locked in place.
Other gas-planet storms, like the Red Spot on Jupiter and many smaller storms on both Saturn and Jupiter, do not have eyes.
This newfound storm's eye offers a window into Saturn.
"The clear skies over the eye appear to extend down to a level about twice as deep as the usual cloud level observed on Saturn," said Kevin Baines of Cassini's visual and infrared mapping spectrometer team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. "This gives us the deepest view yet into Saturn over a wide range of wavelengths, and reveals a mysterious set of dark clouds at the bottom of the eye."
Previous observations have shown that Saturn's south pole is warmer than other parts of the planet by about 4 degrees Fahrenheit.
"The winds decrease with height, and the atmosphere is sinking, compressing and heating over the south pole," said Richard Achterberg, a member of Cassini's composite infrared spectrometer team at NASA's Goddard Spaceflight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
This newfound storm's eye offers a window into Saturn.
It's a conspiracy!
LOL! No it's not...it's a giant flush!
Bush's fault?
... or sit-home Republican's fault???
It must be the American electorate's flush of the Republican Party.
Rove's weather machine sure picked a fine time to misfire.
Thailand?
"All of these worlds are yours except Titan. Attempt no landings there."
I'm an aussie, we get fined if we 'choose' not to vote...yet the (conservative) Liberal Party led by John Howard has won the last four elections.
I am therefor in favour of compulsory voting...
Back to Saturn. That 'storm' looks like a vortex. It's stationary.
It must be the American electorate's flush of the Republican Party.
-----
Or the result of the maelstrom of misinformation and propaganda courtesy of the lying MSM.
I distinctly remember Al Gore having two eyes. Did global warming claim one of them?
Very cool, I'm going to see if I can google some more images of the actual storm (not the freak storm above.)
"...It is an area which we call the Twilight Zone."
-------
From November 2006 until the next elections?
spotted a great tagline the other day...can't recall who owns it, went something like this:
'after Al Gore invented the internet, he invented Global Warming'.
Ping me if you find any images, please
One-eyed. South pole. There could have been so many jokes here if this had been one planet out.
Found some at Nasa.gov site. Here's a link, which shows a few images and a few second 'show'.
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/main/index.html
BTTT .......
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.