Spacecraft beams back images of Saturn hurricane
Updated Fri. Nov. 10 2006 2:28 PM ET
CTV.ca News Staff
At the south pole of Saturn, a massive hurricane-like storm with a diametre of 8,000 kilometres, is raging.
The gale was captured by NASA's Cassini space probe, and is the first hurricane ever detected on another planet.
The dramatic images show a large storm mass with concentric circles leading into the core of the disturbance, which resembles a human eye.
Scientists say that the eye, and cloud formations within the storm, are characteristic of a hurricane with winds swirling clockwise at a tremendous 550 kph.
The eye of the storm is actually ringed by clouds that soar from 30 to 75 kilometres in height -- as much as five times higher than hurricane clouds on Earth.
Scientists say the formation looks like a hurricane but isn't behaving like one -- staying firmly situated on the south pole of the planet, while hurricanes on earth typically shift position.
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