APOD: Saturn's Swirling Cloudscape (2014 Aug 06)

[APOD Robot]

Saturn's Swirling Cloudscape

Explanation: Acquiring its first sunlit views of far northern Saturn in late 2012, the Cassini spacecraft's wide-angle camera recorded this stunning, false-color image of the ringed planet's north pole. The composite of near-infrared image data results in red hues for low clouds and green for high ones, giving the Saturnian cloudscape a vivid appearance. Enormous by terrestrial standards, Saturn's north polar hurricane-like storm is deep, red, and about 2,000 kilometers wide. Clouds at its outer edge travel at over 500 kilometers per hour. Other atmospheric vortices also swirl inside the large, yellowish green, six-sided jet stream known as the hexagon. Beyond the cloud tops at the upper right, arcs of the planet's eye-catching rings appear bright blue.

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[bystander]

http://asterisk.apod.com/viewtopic.php?t=31277

[Boomer12k]

The WHOLE PLANET....looks like one giant Hurricane.

What I find striking about this image is The Rings....at the upper right....they don't look detached....they look like layers of Atmosphere...so it looks pretty wild....the sudden change in color.

Awesome to see a far away shot, rather than a close up of just the center.

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[CURRAHEE CHRIS]

Man alive, I just love this picture!!! I am always at a loss for words when I read about the size and dimensions of all things concerning space. 500km winds!!! 2000 km wide storms. It is really incomprehensble for me.

[starsurfer]

All Saturn related images seem to evoke an intense emotional response! Wow!

[Ron-Astro Pharmacist]

Saturn's north pole seems to be a favorite (for good reason) but the south pole is fun too. Especially this time of year. Looks like a swirling American football.

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2006-137

[Psnarf]

Spectacular image, hidden to Earth-based telescopes. People on the Moon, satellite orbiting Saturn, causes for awe for those over 40.

[BMAONE23]

Looks like the Polar area might be a good place to send a pressure hardened atmospheric probe. Just like a hurricane, shoot for the eye to avoid the winds

[neufer]

Saturn's north pole seems to be a favorite (for good reason) but the south pole is fun too.
Especially this time of year. Looks like a swirling American football.

<<William Orland Kilmer, Jr. (born September 5, 1939) was an American football quarterback in the National Football League for the San Francisco 49ers, the New Orleans Saints and the Washington Redskins. As the first trade during the George Allen era in Washington, Kilmer was destined for a reserve role behind future Hall of Famer Sonny Jurgensen.>>

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Kilmer, Unlikely Standout, Makes Elite List
June 14, 2002|By WARNER HESSLER Daily Press

<<ASHBURN — After watching Billy Kilmer throw a few passes in his first practice with the Washington Redskins in 1971, starter Sonny Jurgensen decided to give the newly acquired quarterback a few pointers. Jurgensen, who threw one of pro football's prettiest passes during his Hall of Fame career, watched in amazement as Kilmer threw one wobbly pass after another. "You throw and control the ball with your fingers," he said, "and the key is to spread your fingers. I noticed that Billy gripped the ball with his four fingers tightly together. I told Billy he had to spread his fingers, and he put out his right hand and told me to go ahead and spread them," Jurgensen said. "I couldn't pry them apart, which made me understand why he couldn't throw spirals. It's remarkable he could throw the ball at all.'' Even when fans and writers joked about his "wounded duck" passes, Kilmer never talked about his birth defect. "That was the reason I throw wobbly passes," Kilmer said. "I had to control the ball with my thumb, and sometimes on the longer passes I put too much pressure on the ball with my thumb, but I never talked about it. When people said I couldn't throw the ball, I just fed off that. I would tell them to look at the record.">>

[SouthEastAsia]

One could also be curious about the other 'hurricane-like storm' structure to the lower-right of the main 'reddish' 2,000km wide storm??

It's blueish-green, which would further denote it was a higher-altitude-based swirling storm, relative to Saturn's atmosphere too?

Any thoughts or input on that one? Thanks in advance!