NASA Probe Spies Giant Hurricane on Saturn
New views of the gas giant's hurricane will shed light on similar storms on Earth.
"Morphologically, this giant storm resembles that of hurricanes and typhoons on Earth—with an eye at its center and spiraling clouds outside—but this Saturnian hurricane is on a titanic scale," said Kunio Sayanagi, a Cassini imaging team member at Hampton University in Virginia.
Just the eye of the storm is estimated to stretch 1,250 miles (2,000 kilometers) across—more than 20 times larger than hurricanes that swirl on Earth. (Related: "Colossal Storm May Rage on Jupiter-like 'Failed Star.'")
Scientists aren't sure when the hurricane formed, but speculate that it could be a permanent weather feature, said fellow Cassini imaging team scientist Andrew Ingersoll at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.
When Cassini
