Saturday, November 11, 2006

Saturn Storm

No, not the car. C'mon guys.

The planet Saturn has a new storm. In 1994 a Hubble Space telescopic image showed a rare storm near the planet's equator. Now the Cassini Space Craft recently observed a new hurricane like storm on Saturn's south pole.
This storm is particularly interesting because it is the first time a clearly defined eye has been seen in any storm in our solar system other than on Earth. The storm is the white glowing arrow near the ring. The storm is 5000 miles across, which is about 2/3 the diameter of Earth.
Below is the well developed eye, ringed by towering clouds.


Some Saturn facts I had forgotten.
Saturn is the 6th planet from the sun, 2nd largest in the solar system, and 74,130 miles in diameter. Saturn is a fast rotating planet with days 10 hours 39 minutes long and it takes 29 1/2 years to revolve around the sun.
See below, Saturn in proportion to Earth. Amazing!


So if we lived on Saturn we'd have 3hrs 33min each to sleep, work and do other stuff. And we'd be a lot older, or is it younger??

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