Saturn Storm "Almost Unbelievable"—Spawns Huge Heat Spike, Vortex
"Nothing like that was ever observed before," NASA scientist says.
(Related: "Giant Saturn Storm Revealed; Wider Than Earth" [2011]. )
Marked by cloud cover wider than the entire Earth, the Saturn tempest in early 2011 also boasted the "largest and hottest stratospheric vortex ever detected in our solar system" and a mysterious explosion in ethylene production.
But wait, there's more: At one point NASA's Cassini orbiter detected on Saturn an "almost unbelievable" regional temperature spike of 150 degrees Fahrenheit (84 degrees Celsius)—the biggest jump ever recorded in our solar system—NASA announced Thursday.
To get an idea of just how extreme the temperature spike was, imagine teleporting from northern Alaska in winter to the Mojave Desert in summertime—a change of some 150 degrees Fahrenheit (84 degrees Celsius).
"We were quite shocked
