We should start at the beginning of this story and that means we need to go back 30 years. One of NASA’s Voyager missions imaged Saturn as it passed the ringed planet on its way to the edge of the solar system. Anyway, Voyager saw something at the north pole of Saturn that indicated a hexagonal (6 sided) wind pattern much like the polar jet streams here on Earth. Scientists thought it strange to see such a wind pattern at the North Pole but Voyager was just visiting on its way to the edge of the solar system. The story jumps forward to just sixteen years ago when a 2.2 million pound Titan IVB/ Centaur rocket took off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. The rocket traveled 2.2 billion miles to reach its destination- Saturn. On June 30, 2004 the rocket deployed part of its cargo- the Cassini Orbiter. The other piece of cargo, the Huygens probe, deployed to the Saturn moon Titan and landed on January 14, 2005.
The mission for Cassini is simple: explore the Saturn System. The first leg of the mission was completed in June of 2008. The second leg, the Cassini Equinox Mission, was completed in September 2010. The third leg is scheduled to last until September 2017.
Cassini contains 12 instruments to send daily measurements of Saturn’s system. Among these instruments is a high resolution imager. Here is where it gets interesting (if you are thus far bored with AWESOME NASA STUFF!): Cassini arrived, as I said, in 2004. At this time Saturn was in the middle of its north polar winter. This means that the infrared imager on the spacecraft could see a giant vortex at the pole but the visible-light view was unattainable until August of 2009. Sunlight reached the northern hemisphere of Saturn and Cassini’s orbit had to be adjusted to be able to see the poles.
The mission for Cassini is simple: explore the Saturn System. The first leg of the mission was completed in June of 2008. The second leg, the Cassini Equinox Mission, was completed in September 2010. The third leg is scheduled to last until September 2017.
Cassini contains 12 instruments to send daily measurements of Saturn’s system. Among these instruments is a high resolution imager. Here is where it gets interesting (if you are thus far bored with AWESOME NASA STUFF!): Cassini arrived, as I said, in 2004. At this time Saturn was in the middle of its north polar winter. This means that the infrared imager on the spacecraft could see a giant vortex at the pole but the visible-light view was unattainable until August of 2009. Sunlight reached the northern hemisphere of Saturn and Cassini’s orbit had to be adjusted to be able to see the poles.
The result is this- the Saturn Hurricane. This storm’s eye is roughly 1,250 miles wide, which is around 20 times larger than the average hurricane on Earth. Winds are estimated to be around 330mph on the edge of the hurricane which is 650 miles beyond the edge of the eye. Winds in the eye wall are four times faster than hurricanes here on Earth. The eye has very little clouds. The eye wall has high clouds. The high clouds outside of the eye wall are spinning counter-clockwise like they do in the northern hemisphere of Earth. It’s a pretty amazing thing.
The question is, how in the world, or rather how in the Saturn, did this giant storm form on a planet with hardly any water at all?
Hurricanes on Earth form from water vapor. The warm oceans feed a hurricane’s strength. The warmer the water the stronger the storm can be. Bottom line is that we thought that it takes a lot of water for a hurricane to form. On Saturn, there’s not much water at all.
Scientists believe that the storm is sustaining itself through the small amount of water available in the atmosphere of Saturn. Studying the hurricane on Saturn may help us to understand how hurricanes work here on Earth. Maybe hurricanes don’t need as much water as previously thought to develop into monsters? Definitely question scientists will investigate in the future.
The location of the hurricane on Saturn is interesting. Usually on Earth hurricanes drift to the north and dissipate as they reach colder water. This storm on Saturn is stuck at the North Pole. It literally can’t go anywhere else on the planet because of the air patterns.
So how long has it been there? Voyager saw something that looked odd 30 years ago. Cassini spotted a giant swirl at the North Pole in 2004. Obviously the storm has been there for quite some time and it will probably be there for some time to come. The good news is that Cassini is going to live and die in the Saturn system and will send measurements and pictures for years to come; however, Cassini can’t just hit the brakes and change its orbit. Scientists have to plan orbit changes with the gravitational pull of Saturn’s moon Titan. This requires careful planning years ahead of time to get it right. NASA is awesome.
Here is a video of the hurricane on Saturn that you should really check out:
Hurricanes on Earth form from water vapor. The warm oceans feed a hurricane’s strength. The warmer the water the stronger the storm can be. Bottom line is that we thought that it takes a lot of water for a hurricane to form. On Saturn, there’s not much water at all.
Scientists believe that the storm is sustaining itself through the small amount of water available in the atmosphere of Saturn. Studying the hurricane on Saturn may help us to understand how hurricanes work here on Earth. Maybe hurricanes don’t need as much water as previously thought to develop into monsters? Definitely question scientists will investigate in the future.
The location of the hurricane on Saturn is interesting. Usually on Earth hurricanes drift to the north and dissipate as they reach colder water. This storm on Saturn is stuck at the North Pole. It literally can’t go anywhere else on the planet because of the air patterns.
So how long has it been there? Voyager saw something that looked odd 30 years ago. Cassini spotted a giant swirl at the North Pole in 2004. Obviously the storm has been there for quite some time and it will probably be there for some time to come. The good news is that Cassini is going to live and die in the Saturn system and will send measurements and pictures for years to come; however, Cassini can’t just hit the brakes and change its orbit. Scientists have to plan orbit changes with the gravitational pull of Saturn’s moon Titan. This requires careful planning years ahead of time to get it right. NASA is awesome.
Here is a video of the hurricane on Saturn that you should really check out:
Anyway, I really hope you enjoyed reading this and have come to appreciate the brilliant things human beings are capable of. Space is really darn cool and we’re just beginning to understand its secrets. 100 years ago we thought the moon was the next frontier. Today our technology is venturing out of the solar system. Imagine where we will be in 100 years!
Sources:
Images-
NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI
Content-
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/news/newsreleases/newsrelease20130429/
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-57582182-1/gawk-at-new-images-of-saturns-super-sized-hurricane/
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/quickfacts/
Sources:
Images-
NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI
Content-
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/news/newsreleases/newsrelease20130429/
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-57582182-1/gawk-at-new-images-of-saturns-super-sized-hurricane/
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/quickfacts/