Comments on: Odd Hexagon at Saturn’s Pole

By: ljk

ljk — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 14:15:30 +0000

September 14, 2009

Super Cell Lightning Storm Raging on Saturn Since January

Written by Nancy Atkinson

The Cassini spacecraft has been in orbit around Saturn since 2004 and during its mission, has watched nine different lightning storms rage on the planet. But this latest one is the longest lasting and most powerful storm yet: it has been going on since mid-January 2009 with no end in sight. It broke the storm duration record of 7.5 months set by another thunderstorm observed by Cassin between November 2007 and July 2008.

Lightning discharges in Saturn’s atmosphere emit very powerful radio waves which are about 10,000 times stronger than their terrestrial counterparts and the huge thunderstorms in Saturn’s atmosphere have diameters of about 3,000 km.

The storm is coursing through “Storm Alley,” a region which lies 35 degrees south of Saturn’s equator where these mammoth storms occur. On board Cassini measuring these storms are the antennas and receivers of the Cassini Radio and Plasma Wave Science (RPWS) instrument.

“These lightning storms are not only astonishing for their power and longevity,” Dr. Georg Fischer of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, “the radio waves that they emit are also useful for studying Saturn’s ionosphere, the charged layer that surrounds the planet a few thousand kilometers above the cloud tops. The radio waves have to cross the ionosphere to get to Cassini and thereby act as a natural tool to probe the structure of the layer and the levels of ionization in different regions.”

Full article and photos here:

http://www.universetoday.com/2009/09/14/super-cell-lightning-storm-raging-on-saturn-since-january/

By: fatacy

fatacy — Sun, 06 May 2007 01:20:06 +0000

Gooday

Could you please estimate this logic, if you can.

http://momloveu.com/science/

Thank you.

By: Monad

Monad — Thu, 29 Mar 2007 15:33:18 +0000

Seems like it’s quite easy to create similar-looking polygonal flow patterns with a bucket of water: http://www.nature.com/news/2006/060515/full/060515-17.html

By: Administrator

Administrator — Thu, 29 Mar 2007 13:12:15 +0000

Phil, thanks for the tip. I’m looking forward to ‘The Algebraist.’ The readers here keep my personal reading list ever growing!

By: Eric James

Eric James — Thu, 29 Mar 2007 04:28:32 +0000

I suppose it might be a standing wave based on convection, but how could it remain so symmetrical?

By: Joseph Mahaney

Joseph Mahaney — Thu, 29 Mar 2007 04:25:20 +0000

I have seen ferrofluids act in a similar manner under the influence of rotating magnetic fields. Many complex and reapeting patterns are produced undersuch conditions. If it is cold enough and if some portions of atmospheric constituents are paramagnetic, could such atmospheric structures form? Also, what would the influence of the moons gravitation fields have to produce tehse structures, if any? More questions than answers….

Joseph

By: Eric James

Eric James — Thu, 29 Mar 2007 04:14:31 +0000

Is it a magnetic field induced anomally? Perhaps a gigantic snowflake? Could the coldness of the sunless atmosphere induce a gigantic crystaline structure/condensate? Weird.

By: Phil

Phil — Thu, 29 Mar 2007 00:37:35 +0000

Iain M Banks has a take on this too. Read ‘The Algebraist’ (great fun) and you’ll know what I mean.

By: Administrator

Administrator — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 21:54:38 +0000

Frank! Good to see you, old buddy. We’re all waiting for Google Saturn at this point — for those who haven’t found it yet, that’s a reference to Frank’s outstanding blog on Google Earth:

http://www.gearthblog.com

Anyone who recalls the Doc Savage pulps may also throw in a suggestion that we’re looking in the Saturn pic at the new location of the Fortress of Solitude…

By: Frank Taylor

Frank Taylor — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 21:15:52 +0000

Maybe this is the super-secret location of the successor to the DOD’s Pentagon headquarters?

:-)