Cassini has capture something NASA scientists have never seen before : A monolithic roaring - and - lightning violent storm that wrapped itself around Saturn create a unlined hoop around the planet . But when the lead portion of the tempest finally get up with itself , it began to recede its steam .
Located at 33 degree in the northerly latitude , NASA first first detect the unprecedented storm in December 2010 using Cassini ’s radio receiver and plasma wave subsystem and imaging tv camera . As the astronomers chronicle its phylogenesis , they started to acknowledge that the riotous head started to make its way Occident . This kindled a clockwise - spinning vortex that slow down . But after a few months , the storm made its way completely around the perimeter of the major planet , a distance of 190,000 miles ( 300,000 klick ) .
To put that into view , that ’s roughly the length of 24 ground pose side - by - side .
Interestingly , the storm , despite its utmost width , is not unlike hurricane on Earth . Like our storms , it requires the get-up-and-go provided by warmth ; Earth ’s hurricane are fed by strong body of water , whereas Saturn ’s storm are fed by warm air .
But that ’s where the departure end . On Earth , a hurricane typically recede its steam when it rack up a terrestrial landmass . But on Saturn , where there is no land , it can just keep on going provided its energy needs are meet .
That said , the scientists are not exclusively sure why the storm sputtered - out when it caught up to itself .
“ This roaring - and - lightning tempest on Saturn was a wolf , ” say uranologist Kunio Sayanagi through NASA’sofficial statement . “ The violent storm maintained its intensity for an unusually farsighted time . The storm head itself thrashed for 201 days , and its updraft erupted with an intensity that would have sucked out the entire bulk of Earth ’s aura in 150 Clarence Day . And it also created the largest vortex ever observed in the troposphere of Saturn , elaborate up to 7,500 miles [ 12,000 kilometers ] across . ”
Sayanagi is the written report ’s lead tip researcher and a Cassini imagery squad associate degree at Hampton University in Virginia .
As an divagation , the vortex grew to a size comparable toOval BA on Jupiter ; but this violent storm , along with the Great Red Spot , does not exhibit the same kind of meteorological violence .
Images : NASA .
AstronomySaturnScienceSpace
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