. GPS News .




.
SATURN DAILY
Tempest-from-hell seen on Saturn
by Staff Writers
Paris (AFP) July 6, 2011

Imagine being caught in a thunderstorm as wide as the Earth with discharges of lightning 10,000 times more powerful than normal, flashing 10 times per second at its peak.

Now imagine that this storm is still unfolding, eight months later.

One of the most violent weather events in the Solar System began to erupt on Saturn last December and is still enthralling astronomers, the British journal Nature reported on Wednesday.

Two studies draw on observations by professional and amateur astronomers using a broad range of gear, from relatively small ground-based telescopes to NASA's magnificent scoutcraft, Cassini.

Saturn, like Jupiter, is no stranger to convective storms.

It too is a "gas giant," or planet comprising layers of thick, roiling gases rather than a rock, like Earth, Mars, Venus and Mercury.

The difference, though, is that jovian mega-storms tend to erupt unexpectedly, but the lord of the rings gives birth to a monster almost periodically.

It occurs on average once every Saturnian year -- nearly 29.5 Earth years -- and appears to be linked to the summer solstice, when the planet's orbit brings it a bit closer to the Sun and its atmosphere warms a little.

The event is known as the "Great White Spot" (a counterpart to the swirling "Great Red Spot" on Jupiter) because of the mass of brilliant white storm clouds that erupt in the upper atmosphere.

The show is so big that it can be visible by telescopes from distant Earth. Five have been observed in the last 130 years. The last occurred in 1990.

But the current Great White Spot is proving to be a dazzling spectacle, revealed by an unprecedented array of observational power at hand.

Events began at 2105 GMT on December 5, when ground-based telescopes detected a "barely visible white point" on a normally unblemished and hazy part of Saturn's northern hemisphere, at around latitude 35 degrees north.

At the same time, Cassini turned its "ears" towards the target, listening in to radio emissions from the storm via an onboard plasma-wave instrument.

These signals are the telltales of lightning. Lightning cannot be seen visually on Saturn at night because of interference from sunlight scattered from the planet's ring system, which comprises billions of shiny particles.

Within a few weeks, the point had ballooned into a storm system that was some 10,000 kilometers (6,000 miles) across, roughly comparable with the diameter of the Earth, and after two months the clouds had almost encircled the entire planet.

Analysis of the data suggests that the "spot" is in fact a cluster of super-storms, produced by upwelling of heat, moisture and ammonia from water clouds from lower down in the Saturnian atmosphere, where the pressure is high.

As this mix rises into a cooler atmospheric layer called the tropopause, bright, white clouds of ammonia start to spread horizontally into a tail, sculpted by eastward jets of wind.

Astronomers are especially intrigued by the current Great White Spot.

The observational history of this phenomenon is sketchy. But evidence suggests the present spot is exceptionally intense and rather premature, for it was still spring on Saturn when the storm brewed.




Related Links
Explore The Ring World of Saturn and her moons
Jupiter and its Moons
The million outer planets of a star called Sol
News Flash at Mercury

.
Get Our Free Newsletters Via Email
...
Buy Advertising Editorial Enquiries






. Comment on this article via your Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, Hotmail login.

Share this article via these popular social media networks
del.icio.usdel.icio.us DiggDigg RedditReddit GoogleGoogle



SATURN DAILY
NASA Hopes It's Time To Explore Titan
Pasadena CA (JPL) May 24, 2011
The Cassini spacecraft recently uncovered evidence that implies the possible existence of an underground ocean of water and ammonia on Saturn's moon, Titan. In fact, Titan has been characterized as having one of the most Earth-like surfaces in the Solar System. If the TiME mission is flown, it may provide the first direct exploration of an ocean environment beyond Earth. The objective is t ... read more


SATURN DAILY
Down-under digestive microbes could help lower methane gas from livestock

EU bans imports of Egyptian seeds

Farm animal disease to increase with climate change

Global warming could alter the US premium wine industry in 30 years, says Stanford study

SATURN DAILY
Magnetic memory and logic could achieve ultimate energy efficiency

Change in material boosts prospects of ultrafast single-photon detector

Scientists Hope to Get Glimpse of Adolescent Universe from Revolutionary Instrument-on-a-Chip

The future of chip manufacturing

SATURN DAILY
Giant Swedish space balloon fizzes out: space centre

Northrop Grumman to Provide Navigation Equipment for Modernisation of India Air Field Infrastructure Program

Swiss solar plane returns after European flights

JAL plans budget carrier with Jetsar: report

SATURN DAILY
Toyota to cut work at Brazil, Argentina plants

China's BYD, Societe Generale unit end tie-up

Hydrogenics Awarded Hydrogen Fueling Station in Germany

Diesel cars gain traction slowly in US market

SATURN DAILY
Chinese media attack WTO ruling against China

China to pour $9 bn into Brazil this year: report

Spain aims to welcome one million Chinese tourists in 2020

China's export restrictions on raw materials illegal: WTO

SATURN DAILY
Using DNA in fight against illegal logging

Brazil revokes Amazon logging permits after deaths

Tropical Birds Return to Harvested Rainforest Areas in Brazil

Analyzing Agroforestry Management

SATURN DAILY
Pioneering ERS environment satellite retires

DLR scientists support expedition with a highly accurate 3D model of mountain

Sudanese deployments tracked from space

India Remote Sensing Data Policy Revised

SATURN DAILY
City dwellers produce as much CO2 as countryside people do

Graphene may gain an 'on-off switch,' adding semiconductor to long list of achievements

Building 2D graphene metamaterials and 1-atom-thick optical devices

Singapore researchers invent broadband graphene polarizer


Memory Foam Mattress Review
Newsletters :: SpaceDaily Express :: SpaceWar Express :: TerraDaily Express :: Energy Daily
XML Feeds :: Space News :: Earth News :: War News :: Solar Energy News
.

The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2011 - Space Media Network. AFP and UPI Wire Stories are copyright Agence France-Presse and United Press International. ESA Portal Reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement,agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. Privacy Statement