A powerful electrical storm is currently blasting across the planet. According to NASA, this is primarily an electrical storm with lightning bolts 10,000 times more powerful than those on Earth. NASA's Cassini spacecraft is currently trolling our solar system and captured the image of the storm. The satellite is currently on a five-month mission to monitor Saturn and its moons.
This storm is about the size of the planet Earth! Saturn's electrical storms do look a lot like our Earth-bound thunderstorms, but they are much larger. Storms on Saturn are thousands of miles wide. Their lightning bolts produce radio signals thousands of times more powerful than those produced by our thunderstorms.
According to NASA: "Lightning flashes within the persistent storm produce radio waves called electrostatic discharges." The Cassini Satellite first detected these discharges on Nov. 27, 2007. The storm itself was spotted by Cassini's cameras on Decmber 6th.
How long do these storms last? "The electrostatic radio outbursts have waxed and waned in intensity for five months now," said NASA Official George Fischer, "We saw similar storms in 2004 and 2006 that each lasted for nearly a month, but this storm is longer-lived by far."
A NASA press release adds: "The new storm is located in Saturn's southern hemisphere--in a region nicknamed "Storm Alley" by mission scientists--where the previous lightning storms were observed by Cassini."
This storm is about the size of the planet Earth! Saturn's electrical storms do look a lot like our Earth-bound thunderstorms, but they are much larger. Storms on Saturn are thousands of miles wide. Their lightning bolts produce radio signals thousands of times more powerful than those produced by our thunderstorms.
According to NASA: "Lightning flashes within the persistent storm produce radio waves called electrostatic discharges." The Cassini Satellite first detected these discharges on Nov. 27, 2007. The storm itself was spotted by Cassini's cameras on Decmber 6th.
How long do these storms last? "The electrostatic radio outbursts have waxed and waned in intensity for five months now," said NASA Official George Fischer, "We saw similar storms in 2004 and 2006 that each lasted for nearly a month, but this storm is longer-lived by far."
A NASA press release adds: "The new storm is located in Saturn's southern hemisphere--in a region nicknamed "Storm Alley" by mission scientists--where the previous lightning storms were observed by Cassini."
