Epic Alien Storm on Saturn -- Captured by Cassini Space Probe

Just wanted to share these beautiful pictures with ATS

Link - DailyGalaxy.com

"This new storm is a completely different kind of beast compared to anything we saw on Saturn previously with Cassini. The fact that such outbursts are episodic and keep happening on Saturn every 20 to 30 years or so is telling us something about deep inside the planet, but we have yet to figure out what it is."

The storm was first detected back in Dec 5th, 2010.
In the following picture, You can see the start of the storm as a very faint bright spot. I placed two red dots after the spot to help make it more visible. Original is available in the following link.


Full Size Original Pic

Over the last year, the storm has grown into this-


High Resolution Tiff (2mb)



High Resolution Tiff format (2mb)

The monster tempest, which extended north-south approximately 9,000 miles (15,000 kilometers), is the largest seen on Saturn in the past two decades and is the largest by far ever observed on the planet from an interplanetary spacecraft.

Full Size Pic

"The Saturn storm is more like a volcano than a terrestrial weather system," said Andrew Ingersoll, a Cassini imaging team member at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. "The pressure builds up for many years before the storm erupts. The mystery is that there's no rock to resist the pressure - to delay the eruption for so many years."

Hope you enjoyed the pics!

Bonus- Youtube video with Audio sample of the storm recorded by cassini

And I thought the weather was bad in Britain...

reply to post by FOXMULDER147


Well, to be fair to all proud Britains, the weather is pretty crappy there on a grand scale too

..and dont even get me started on the food

reply to post by VonDoomen



How can a storm be alien if it's on it's own planet? I was expecting to see a aliens whirling in a tornado before clicking on your thread.

As to the fifth picture in you OP, it looks like something Van Gogh would paint to me!

Ah yes. Wasn't this storm caused by the Elenin flyby. Lol.

reply to post by supine


The headline is the wording used in the linked story.
And I believe they called it alien because it is alien to Earth and our perspective.

saturns storms remind me of vincent van gogh's painting: Starry night

Very beautiful storms indeed

reply to post by VonDoomen


I'm waiting for the epic storm on Earth...it's not a matter of IF...it's a matter of WHEN!

reply to post by FreedomKnight


Lets just pray to god that if it does, George Clooney will be around to offer his services!!

Originally posted by Biigs
saturns storms remind me of vincent van gogh's painting: Starry night

Very beautiful storms indeed

Me too! Mabey he was bonkers because he could remote view storms on Saturn.

Originally posted by supine
reply to post by VonDoomen

 

How can a storm be alien if it's on it's own planet? I was expecting to see a aliens whirling in a tornado before clicking on your thread.

As to the fifth picture in you OP, it looks like something Van Gogh would paint to me!

edit on 21-11-2011 by supine because: edit

edit on 21-11-2011 by supine because: because I haven't had enough coffee yet

"Stormy Planet"


Thanks for posting OP - this is the first time I've seen such highly magnified images. Wonder how long that thing will go on for!

reply to post by TinkerHaus


I wouldn't be surprised if the storm continued for a few more years.

According to the article, one of the things that has scientist stumped is what takes so long for the storm to start.
They can detect the build up of energy in the atmosphere, but for some reason it seems the storm requires more energy to start up in Saturn, but once they do get going, WATCH OUT!

found it-

"The Saturn storm is more like a volcano than a terrestrial weather system," said Andrew Ingersoll, a Cassini imaging team member at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. "The pressure builds up for many years before the storm erupts. The mystery is that there's no rock to resist the pressure - to delay the eruption for so many years."

S&F!!! I love this kind of stuff. Those pics are incredible! Like someone said above, it's like a Van Gogh painting. Art truely does imitate life huh? I am amazed at the sheer size of it....awesome!

reply to post by StealthyKat


Thank you!

I thought the pics were incredible as well, not to mention the stats for the storm!

I think I may have found a new desktop picture!

very fricken cool.

tho "storm" seems like a bad description. the patterns look a lot more like vortex shedding than a terrestrial storm system. vortex shedding is what makes poles sway in wind storms and flags flap. there are even some energy capture schemes that make use of this phenomenon in ocean energy systems.

vortex shedding is what happens when a solid and a fluid interact or have relative velocities.
you can see some smaller scale versions of this fluid property here : # yeah fluid dynamics

thing is.... it requires a stationary 'solid'.

curious.

Originally posted by galactix
very fricken cool.

tho "storm" seems like a bad description. the patterns look a lot more like vortex shedding than a terrestrial storm system. vortex shedding is what makes poles sway in wind storms and flags flap. there are even some energy capture schemes that make use of this phenomenon in ocean energy systems.

vortex shedding is what happens when a solid and a fluid interact or have relative velocities.
you can see some smaller scale versions of this fluid property here : # yeah fluid dynamics

thing is.... it requires a stationary 'solid'.

curious.

Hmm, didn't knew about that, thanks.
Could a small metallic core in Saturn cause this vortexes (sp?) if it's rotating velocity is different from the rest of the gaseous mass of the planet?

reply to post by galactix


well darn. the link becomes invalid when posted. it's a tumblr thing..or became one. i can't find the original site.

if u are interested in seeing some videos of freekin' amazing fluid properties, google : '#yeahfluiddynamics"

edit: sometimes the profane language filter is annoying. its "suckyeahfluiddynamics" . replace the "s" with "f".

Ah, it seems inhabitants of Saturn just had their World War 3 and someone decided to nuke the sky.

Originally posted by Logman
Ah yes. Wasn't this storm caused by the Elenin flyby. Lol.

never LOL nice presentation OP, SnF

reply to post by drakus


there are some who think that gas giants birth their moons, rather than capture them. the idea is that higher density matter accumulates on the 'surface' as the internal planetary reactions continue. when enuf matter accumulates, the body lifts off the surface and drifts away to become a moon.

this would explain why our moon is made of 'earth' stuff.

it would also explain why the moon's orbital diameter is increasing rather than decreasing.

there are some who say that the 'red spot' on Jupiter will someday be a new moon.

a curios idea , to be sure.