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Results tagged “trivia” from Breaking Orbit

Stormy Saturn and Some Space Trivia

Posted on September 30, 2008 | 0 Comments

Move over, Mars, you're not the only act in town that can show folks some extreme weather.

The orbiting Cassini spacecraft took this image, released today by NASA, of Saturn's northern latitudes, including an edge of the planet's famed atmospheric hexagon that swirls around its north pole.

saturn-storms.jpg

—Image courtesy NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

The tight, high-resolution shot was captured on August 25 using a wide-angle camera with a spectral filter (no, ghost hunters, it's not what you think) that lets in infrared light.

Taken from about 336,000 miles (541,000 kilometers) above the planet, the shot encompasses 18 miles (29 kilometers) per pixel, which should give viewers some idea of the scale of those swirling storms.

As a gas giant, Saturn is almost all atmosphere, and it's raging winds really book it—hustling the clouds around at up to 1,100 miles (1,770 kilometers) an hour.

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The moon
From dwarf planets to hot Jupiters, join NatGeo News space and tech editor Victoria Jaggard in a global discussion about all things extraterrestrial.


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