Stormy SaturnA vortex of storm clouds swirls around Saturn’s north pole in this November 27 image taken from about 250,000 miles (about 400,000 kilometers) away by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft.Cassini's cameras have revealed a cyclone-like pattern at the pole before but only in infrared wavelengths because the north pole was in darkness during the planet's long winter. As Saturn slowly orbits the sun, light has finally begun to reach the north pole.Cassini was launched in 1997 and has been orbiting the Saturnian system since 2004.(Read about extreme weather here on Earth.)
Image courtesy SSI/ISA/ESA/NASA

Space Pictures This Week: Saturn Storm, Sun Blast

Tokyo glitters in an astronaut's photo, a storm swirls on Saturn, and jets shoot out of a supermassive black hole in this week's best space pictures.

December 1, 2012