14 DAY TRIAL // Cassini, the spacecraft that is the result of the collaboration between NASA and the Italian Space Agency, has recently discovered a giant cyclone on Saturn's northern pole, and has provided pictures of the known, similar phenomenon from the south pole in much greater detail than those previously obtained.
The infrared images sent back by the Cassini spacecraft have shown in 10 times greater detail the sedentary storm that is ravaging the southern pole of Saturn. But that’s not all they did, as they also indicated for the first time the presence of a similar natural phenomenon on the opposite pole.
According to Kevin Baines, the spacecraft's scientist on problems related to the visual and infrared mapping spectrometer at the Pasadena-based NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, “These are truly massive cyclones, hundreds of times stronger than the most giant hurricanes on Earth. Dozens of puffy, convectively formed cumulus clouds swirl around both poles, betraying the presence of giant thunderstorms lurking beneath. Thunderstorms are the likely engine for these giant weather systems.”
The probe's time-lapse movies presented Saturn's entire north pole in infrared up to 120 kilometers (75 miles)-small structures, including the massive static cyclone swirling at 530 km/h (325 mph), more than 2 times faster than any cyclone wind on Earth. There is an odd, hexagonal feature that surrounds the storm without moving at all, in spite of being constantly whipped by the massive clouds and the enormous cyclone. The cloud outer ring that surrounds the storm's vortex measures 4,000 km (2,500 miles) in width, and the shadows it casts on the inner ring (which is half its diameter) suggest that it lies 40 to 70 km (25 to 45 miles) above it.
The Cassini-Huygens probe has been orbiting Saturn since July 2004, and is expected to provide more images that would uncover more stunning details about the ringed planet.