Washington: NASA's Cassini spacecraft has provided scientists the first close-up, visible-light views of a behemoth hurricane swirling around Saturn's North Pole. In high-resolution pictures and video, scientists see the hurricane's eye is about 2,000 kilometres wide, 20 times larger than the average hurricane eye on Earth.
Thin, bright clouds at the outer edge of the hurricane are travelling 150 meters per second. The hurricane swirls inside a large, mysterious, six-sided weather pattern known as the hexagon. "We did a double take when we saw this vortex because it looks so much like a hurricane on Earth," said Andrew Ingersoll, a Cassini imaging team member at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.
"But there it is at Saturn, on a much larger scale, and it is somehow getting by on the small amounts of water vapour in Saturn's hydrogen atmosphere," said Ingersoll. Scientists will be studying the hurricane to gain insight into hurricanes on Earth, which feed off warm ocean water.
Although there is no body of water close to these clouds high in Saturn's atmosphere, learning how these Saturnian storms use water vapour could tell scientists more about how terrestrial hurricanes are generated and sustained....
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03:06 AM, May 01, 2013
The South Pole is turning into a waste dump, with leftovers from experimental set-ups slowly decomposing. Mounds of rubbish, discarded oil cans, car batteries and some dangerous chemicals litter the South Pole, according to a report. ...
12:07 PM, Feb 10, 2013
New Delhi: The Indian Tricolour now flies high over the South Pole. Indian scientists have possibly created a world record for the shortest time taken to get to the South Pole. The achieved the feat in just eight days travelling 4000 kilometers non-stop. "Most difficult part was getting food. The nozzle of the stove gave way because of the cold. The rubber pipe gave way. We were at a loss ...
09:23 AM, Jan 12, 2011
New Delhi: The Indian Tricolour now flies high over the South Pole. Indian scientists have possibly created a world record for the shortest time taken to get to the South Pole. The achieved the feat in just eight days travelling 4000 kilometers non-stop. "Most difficult part was getting food. The nozzle of the stove gave way because of the cold. The rubber pipe gave way. We were at a loss...
09:23 AM, Jan 12, 2011
New Delhi: India will send an expedition to the South Pole to study changes in climate patterns that have taken place in Antarctica in the last thousands of years, an official said here on Friday. Science and Technology Minister Prithviraj Chavan will flag off the expedition Nov 1, which would start the international celebration of the centenary of man's reaching South Pole in 1911. The team will leave for Maitri,...
08:15 PM, Oct 29, 2010
They marked the 60th year of the foundation of the Commonwealth. ...
02:01 PM, Jan 13, 2010
Reena Kaushal made the ski-run as part of an eight-woman team. ...
09:59 AM, Jan 01, 2010
Mars' south polar region contains enough frozen water to cover the whole planet in a liquid layer, says study. ...
10:35 PM, Mar 16, 2007
Indian adventurer Ajeet Bajaj unfurled the tricolour at the South Pole as the nation celebrated 58th Republic Day. ...
02:50 PM, Jan 26, 2007
Indian Navy will try to be the world's first navy team to launch a cross-country skiing expedition to South Pole. ...
04:58 PM, Sep 08, 2006
