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Cassini Observes Hurricane-Like Storm On Saturn
Posted by
Zonk
on Fri Nov 10, 2006 10:46 AM
from the go-go-little-spacebuggy dept.
from the go-go-little-spacebuggy dept.
Aglassis writes "The Cassini spacecraft recently observed a hurricane-like storm on the south pole of Saturn. What makes this storm particularly interesting is that this is the first time that a clearly defined eyewall has been seen outside of the Earth in the Solar System. Neither the Great White Spot of Saturn nor the Great Red Spot of Jupiter have had an observable eyewall. NASA, JPL, and the Space Science Institute have released a short movie of the motion around the eyewall (mirrored at YouTube)."
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You can look a hurricane right in the eye (Score:2)
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And just like Katrina, it must be global warming.
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That's no hurricane! (Score:5, Funny)
It's an alien transportation portal!
I for one welcome our gas giant portal-creating overlords and any new cliches they can teach us!
Saturn Visibility (Score:5, Interesting)
Saturn (magnitude +0.5, in Leo), rises around 11:30 or midnight and is in fine view high in the southeast by early dawn. Regulus, about half as bright, sparkles 5 below Saturn after they rise. By dawn Regulus is to Saturn's lower left.
http://skytonight.com/observing/ataglance [skytonight.com]
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He gives very good tips for how to identify different starts, where to find them, what's going on, etc.
Unmanned Space Flight (Score:4, Informative)
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Also Mirrored (better) At imeem.com - (Score:1)
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That's no Storm... (Score:3, Funny)
Just Great (Score:2)
Original At CICLOPS (Score:2)
Re:Hammer, Feather, Freefall on the Moon: Revisite (Score:1)
If this is more you being bizzaro than it is a bizzaro troll, good luck with that.
Galilean metaphysics (Score:2)
Newtonian Zen: Does it exist if it cannot be observed?
TFA: If you go to youtube, give the cassini (and other space exploration) videos a go and rate them, it will encourage them (and others) to put up more.
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Gas clouds erupting from Uranus?
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At least he's not attacking New Orleans again with his hurricane conjuring powers. What did he have against cajun cooking anyway?
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Do you honestly think we can control poverty, disease, wars, and "Head O
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Saturn is mostly gas; the planet as a whole is considerably less dense than water. There isn't really any solid surface to speak of; we generally consider the cloud tops to be the surface for all intents and purposes.
Somewhere way, way down there, there may be a solid surface of metallic hydrogen, or possibly crystalline carbon, and perhaps inside that a rocky core somewhat larger