Saturnian Storms


The idea of storms on other worlds is not uncommon. NASA’s Cassini spacecraft has tracked the aftermath of a massive storm on Saturn. Data reveal record-setting disturbances in the planet’s upper atmosphere long after the visible signs of the storm abated, in addition to an indication the storm was more forceful than scientists previously thought. Saturn’s usually bland atmosphere occasionally exhibits long-lived ovals and other features common on Jupiter. In 1990, the Hubble Space Telescope imaged an enormous white cloud near Saturn’s equator that was not present during the Voyager encounters and in 1994, another, smaller storm was observed. Data from Cassini’s composite infrared spectrometer (CIRS) instrument revealed the storm’s powerful discharge sent the temperature in Saturn’s stratosphere soaring 150 degrees Fahrenheit above normal.


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