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Massive Hurricane Possibly Forming On Saturn
LAist is obsessed with all things STAR today in anxious anticipation of an upcoming visit to the newly reopened Griffiting Observatory and came across this interesting piece of news. The NASA Cassini Spacecraft this past weekend captured images of a massive hurricane on the planet Saturn. This type of event has never been observed before on any other planet except for Earth. As a refresher, Saturn is three away from us separated by Mars and then Jupiter. The storm is located on Saturn's south pole.
Cassini's imaging team happens to be located at CALTECH. Represent Pasadena!
While the scientists are still working on what formed the storm, they have released the following details. The storm is approximately 5,000 miles across or roughly two-thirds the diameter of Earth and is stationary. The winds in the storm, which are blowing clockwise are reaching about 350 miles per hour and two spiral arms of clouds are extending from the center of the storm. Scientists say that the storm's clouds are anywhere between three to five times taller and larger than any clouds found on Earth.
The picture above is of the storm, cool huh?
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