Explanation:
It is one of the largest and longest lived storms ever recorded in our Solar System.
First seen late last year, the above cloud formation in the northern hemisphere of Saturn started larger than the Earth and
soon spread completely around the planet.
The storm has been tracked not only
from Earth but from
up close by the robotic
Cassini spacecraft currently orbiting Saturn.
Pictured above in false colored infrared in February, orange colors indicate
clouds deep in the atmosphere, while light colors highlight clouds higher up.
The rings of Saturn are seen nearly edge-on as the thin blue horizontal line.
The warped dark bands are the
shadows of the rings cast onto the cloud tops by the Sun to the upper left.
A source of radio noise from
lightning, the
intense storm may relate to seasonal changes as spring
slowly emerges in the north of Saturn.
Fun Quiz:
Celestial or Cellular -- can you tell the difference?
