APOD: Saturn Hurricane (2013 May 02)

Comments and questions about the APOD on the main view screen.
Post Reply
User avatar
APOD Robot
Otto Posterman
Posts: 5344
Joined: Fri Dec 04, 2009 3:27 am
Contact:

APOD: Saturn Hurricane (2013 May 02)

Post by APOD Robot » Thu May 02, 2013 4:10 am

Image Saturn Hurricane

Explanation: Acquiring its first sunlit views of far northern Saturn late last year, the Cassini spacecraft's narrow-angle camera recorded this stunning image of the vortex at the ringed planet's north pole. The false color, near-infrared image results in red hues for low clouds and green for high ones, causing the north-polar hurricane to take on the appearance of a rose. Enormous by terrestrial hurricane standards, this storm's eye is about 2,000 kilometers wide, with clouds at the outer edge traveling at over 500 kilometers per hour. The north pole Saturn hurricane swirls inside the large, six-sided weather pattern known as the hexagon. Of course, in 2006 Cassini also imaged the hurricane at Saturn's south pole.

<< Previous APOD This Day in APOD Next APOD >>
[/b]

User avatar
Beyond
500 Gigaderps
Posts: 6889
Joined: Tue Aug 04, 2009 11:09 am
Location: BEYONDER LAND

Re: APOD: Saturn Hurricane (2013 May 02)

Post by Beyond » Thu May 02, 2013 4:16 am

Looks like the south pole has the 'eye'. Is the one at the south pole also inside a hexagon?
To find the Truth, you must go Beyond.

ianb4all
Ensign
Posts: 10
Joined: Tue Jan 02, 2007 5:58 am

Re: APOD: Saturn Hurricane (2013 May 02)

Post by ianb4all » Thu May 02, 2013 4:20 am

Send a satellite with a probe and fire it right into the middle and send back data of what it finds as it descends- could there be a calm part to the centre eye of that storm where it could descend.

User avatar
Ann
4725 Å
Posts: 13369
Joined: Sat May 29, 2010 5:33 am

Re: APOD: Saturn Hurricane (2013 May 02)

Post by Ann » Thu May 02, 2013 5:44 am

Saturn's been windy lately here at APOD!

Can't help thinking of The Wind on the Moon.

Today's APOD is a stunning picture of a mega-storm, certainly!

Ann
Color Commentator

User avatar
bystander
Apathetic Retiree
Posts: 21571
Joined: Mon Aug 28, 2006 2:06 pm
Location: Oklahoma

Re: APOD: Saturn Hurricane (2013 May 02)

Post by bystander » Thu May 02, 2013 8:33 am

Know the quiet place within your heart and touch the rainbow of possibility; be
alive to the gentle breeze of communication, and please stop being such a jerk.
— Garrison Keillor

Boomer12k
:---[===] *
Posts: 2691
Joined: Sun Apr 22, 2007 12:07 am

Re: APOD: Saturn Hurricane (2013 May 02)

Post by Boomer12k » Thu May 02, 2013 9:25 am

Always an awesome sight...the "MAW of Saturn"....

You have not lived until you have projected it on the wall...really cool!!!!

:---[===] *

saturno2
Commander
Posts: 755
Joined: Wed Jun 29, 2011 10:05 pm

Re: APOD: Saturn Hurricane (2013 May 02)

Post by saturno2 » Thu May 02, 2013 10:24 am

Beyond wrote:Looks like the south pole has the 'eye'. Is the one at the south pole also inside a hexagon?
No. The south pole of Saturn has not a hexagon.

saturno2
Commander
Posts: 755
Joined: Wed Jun 29, 2011 10:05 pm

Re: APOD: Saturn Hurricane (2013 May 02)

Post by saturno2 » Thu May 02, 2013 10:49 am

500 km / h for a hurracane is a very big speed.

ta152h0
Schooled
Posts: 1399
Joined: Mon Aug 29, 2005 12:46 am
Location: Auburn, Washington, USA

Re: APOD: Saturn Hurricane (2013 May 02)

Post by ta152h0 » Thu May 02, 2013 1:59 pm

Cassini sure is long living ! When it quits, where is it going on it's final mission ?
Wolf Kotenberg

User avatar
MargaritaMc
Look to the Evenstar
Posts: 1836
Joined: Wed Jan 09, 2013 10:14 pm
Location: 28°16'7"N 16°36'20"W

Re: APOD: Saturn Hurricane (2013 May 02)

Post by MargaritaMc » Thu May 02, 2013 2:20 pm

hurricane_katrina.jpeg
saturno2 wrote:500 km / h for a hurracane is a very big speed.
You are absolutely right, saturno2 - that is almost twice the maximum speed of hurricane Katrina! :shock:
Margarita
"In those rare moments of total quiet with a dark sky, I again feel the awe that struck me as a child. The feeling is utterly overwhelming as my mind races out across the stars. I feel peaceful and serene."
&mdash; Dr Debra M. Elmegreen, Fellow of the AAAS

Lordcat Darkstar
Ensign
Posts: 37
Joined: Sat Mar 31, 2012 2:49 pm

Re: APOD: Saturn Hurricane (2013 May 02)

Post by Lordcat Darkstar » Thu May 02, 2013 4:34 pm

I was wondering does Saturn have jets of energetic particles coming out of its polar regions like newly forming stars and galexies? If there were I would think it would only be radio waves and would probably be very weak, but it would definently be interesting to study. Also I've never heard of it but does the sun have a vortex at its polar regions or is its rotation not fast enough to support one? Come to think of it I've never seen an image of the sun from the north or south pole. :shock:

User avatar
LocalColor
Science Officer
Posts: 266
Joined: Sat Mar 31, 2012 9:11 pm
Location: Central Idaho, USA
Contact:

Re: APOD: Saturn Hurricane (2013 May 02)

Post by LocalColor » Thu May 02, 2013 4:44 pm

So glad Cassini is still going strong after all these years. Almost like it was waiting for spring to light up the north pole to show us this amazing storm!

Guest

Re: APOD: Saturn Hurricane (2013 May 02)

Post by Guest » Thu May 02, 2013 4:59 pm

Beyond wrote:Looks like the south pole has the 'eye'. Is the one at the south pole also inside a hexagon?

The hexagon pattern has something to do with precession and/or wobble of the North Pole area, but not the South one. K

User avatar
rstevenson
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
Posts: 2704
Joined: Fri Mar 28, 2008 1:24 pm
Location: Halifax, NS, Canada

Re: APOD: Saturn Hurricane (2013 May 02)

Post by rstevenson » Thu May 02, 2013 5:34 pm

ta152h0 wrote:Cassini sure is long living ! When it quits, where is it going on it's final mission ?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cassini%E2%80%93Huygens#End_of_mission_planning wrote:End of mission planning
During planning for its extended missions, various future plans for Cassini were evaluated especially on the basis of science return, cost, and time. Some of the options examined include collision with Saturn atmosphere, icy satellite, or rings; another is departure from Saturn orbit to Jupiter, Uranus, Neptune, or a Centaur. Other options include leaving it in certain stable orbits around Saturn, or departure to a heliocentric orbit. Each plan requires certain amounts of time and changes in velocity. Another possibility was aerobraking into orbit around Titan.
Rob

User avatar
Anthony Barreiro
Turtles all the way down
Posts: 793
Joined: Wed May 11, 2011 7:09 pm
Location: San Francisco, California, Turtle Island

Re: APOD: Saturn Hurricane (2013 May 02)

Post by Anthony Barreiro » Thu May 02, 2013 6:57 pm

This false color picture is certainly dramatic, and it gives a sense of the depth of this storm in Saturn's atmosphere, but I find the true color picture available one click past the "Acquiring its first sunlit views" link more interesting. That's what Saturn's north pole would look like to human eyes ... . Mostly shades of teal and white.
May all beings be happy, peaceful, and free.

User avatar
neufer
Vacationer at Tralfamadore
Posts: 18805
Joined: Mon Jan 21, 2008 1:57 pm
Location: Alexandria, Virginia

Re: APOD: Saturn Hurricane (2013 May 02)

Post by neufer » Thu May 02, 2013 7:34 pm

MargaritaMc wrote:
saturno2 wrote:
500 km / h for a hurricane is a very big speed.
You are absolutely right, saturno2 - that is almost twice the maximum speed of hurricane Katrina! :shock:
That's almost 28% the maximum speed of Saturn winds :!:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturn wrote:
Wind speeds on Saturn can reach 1,800 km/h.
Art Neuendorffer

User avatar
Anthony Barreiro
Turtles all the way down
Posts: 793
Joined: Wed May 11, 2011 7:09 pm
Location: San Francisco, California, Turtle Island

Re: APOD: Saturn Hurricane (2013 May 02)

Post by Anthony Barreiro » Thu May 02, 2013 9:35 pm

Lordcat Darkstar wrote:I was wondering does Saturn have jets of energetic particles coming out of its polar regions like newly forming stars and galexies? If there were I would think it would only be radio waves and would probably be very weak, but it would definently be interesting to study. Also I've never heard of it but does the sun have a vortex at its polar regions or is its rotation not fast enough to support one? Come to think of it I've never seen an image of the sun from the north or south pole. :shock:
The joint ESA-NASA Ulysses spacecraft has been in a highly elliptical polar orbit around the Sun since 1994. Ulysses contributed greatly to our understanding of the Sun's polar regions and collected other useful data about the solar wind, dust entering the solar system from interstellar space, triangulating the sources of gamma ray bursts, etc. The spacecraft was dogged by technical problems throughout it's mission, and its last transmitter was shut down in 2009. Ulysses forgot to pack his camera when he set sail from Troy, unfortunately.
May all beings be happy, peaceful, and free.

saturno2
Commander
Posts: 755
Joined: Wed Jun 29, 2011 10:05 pm

Re: APOD: Saturn Hurricane (2013 May 02)

Post by saturno2 » Thu May 02, 2013 10:53 pm

neufer wrote:
MargaritaMc wrote:
saturno2 wrote:
500 km / h for a hurricane is a very big speed.
You are absolutely right, saturno2 - that is almost twice the maximum speed of hurricane Katrina! :shock:
That's almost 28% the maximum speed of Saturn winds :!:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturn wrote:
Wind speeds on Saturn can reach 1,800 km/h.
500km / h is a great speed for a hurracane, but in the Solar System there are
Super Winds as on the Planet Neptune, they reach 2,000 Km / h

Post Reply