Image of the day: Animation of Saturn with Aurora

Posted: July 28, 2014 by tallbloke in solar system dynamics

H/T Maxime Duprez:

saturn-aurora

Comments
  1. tallbloke says:
    July 28, 2014 at 8:57 pm

    Now we need to work out the frame rate…
    Wouldn’t it be something if that pulsation was at 160 minutes. Kotov will do a little dance.
    The images coming back from Cassini are just superb.
    http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/

  2. oldbrew says:
    July 28, 2014 at 9:55 pm

    Wikipedia killjoys claim Kotov’s pulse is an illusion.

  3. tallbloke says:
    July 29, 2014 at 8:19 am

    I covered that controversy in an earlier post. The US data got ‘reanalysed’ to find it was just off the 160 min at 1/9 of an Earth day. So now the idea is that the cause of the wave is a resonance effect in the atmosphere rather than inherent to the Sun. 160 x 4 is 640. That’s pretty close to Saturn’s rotation period isn’t it? See new post and we’ll continue discussion there.

    Apparent six minute slowdown in Saturn’s day length challenges current magnetosphere theory

  4. tallbloke says:
    July 29, 2014 at 8:25 am

    H/T to Intrepid Wanders for this vid of Saturn’s auroras

  5. acckkii says:
    July 29, 2014 at 10:56 am

    Reblogged this on acckkii.

  6. tallbloke says:
    July 30, 2014 at 9:00 am
  7. tallbloke says:
    July 30, 2014 at 9:03 am
  8. oldbrew says:
    July 30, 2014 at 9:31 am

    The south pole storm has an eyewall – visible near the end of the video.

    ‘In 2006, Cassini discovered a hurricane-like storm at Saturn’s southern pole. The storm had a distinct eyewall – a common characteristic of hurricanes on Earth, and a phenomenon never-before seen on another world.’

    ‘Unlike hurricanes on Earth, the Saturn hurricane is stationary, measures 8,000km across and 70km in height, and has winds reaching speeds of 560kph (350 mph).’

    http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2014/06/nasa-esas-cassini-spacecraft-10-years-saturn/

    Where is the energy for such massive activity coming from?