Comments on: Psychedelic Saturn storm!

By: James Cappio

James Cappio — Tue, 01 May 2012 00:27:48 +0000

@flip 24, like all of Phil’s plays on “embiggen,” “encronosenate” in fact means something. In Greek mythology, the father of the Olympian gods was Cronos; his Roman counterpart is–that’s right, Saturn! So “encronosenate” means something like “Saturnize.”

By: Georg

Georg — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 12:57:37 +0000

The 2looks” of this storm is a so called “Karman vortex street”.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C3%A1rm%C3%A1n_vortex_street

My “theory” is, that well below the upper (visible) layers of atmosphere is some
storm (or other thing) resulting in a strong upwell of gas. This lower levels seem to rotate slower than the upper layers, thus working like an obstacle in the
visible layer, causing that Karman street.
Georg

By: flip

flip — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 23:26:51 +0000

@Marty, #22,

It doesn’t mean anything. It’s a fun reference to ‘embiggen’, the made-up word from The Simpsons, in this case Phil is using a made-up word instead of ‘enlarge’ or ‘magnify’. Phil is known to use a range of nonsensical terms in exchange of a real one when inviting people to view the images.

By: Infinite123Lifer

Infinite123Lifer — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 09:28:22 +0000

For#21 beerclark:

Reference comment #7 maybe?

Surely the disruption being observed here qualifies as a storm?
That’s a question

Alien’s making pretty art? Jk

I wonder if comet Shoemaker-Levy 9′s run-in with Jupiter could shed any light on the possibility of this being impact related?

By: marty

marty — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 06:08:56 +0000

A quick search for a definition of encronosenate was unsuccessful. What does it mean?

By: beerclark

beerclark — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 04:44:00 +0000

#2 Gregory: I agree with you. This looks like something other then a storm.

#13 Mephane: I would only disagree due to the effects of these storms. Jupiter’s storms are nothing like this storm happening on Saturn… at least visually. The Great Red Spot is much larger then Saturn’s storm and yet it shows very little disruption in the clouds of Jupiter. If you even look at the picture, Saturn itself has a much larger storm in its southern half yet it barley changes its surroundings.

Anyway, as far as I have seen, I thought these storms are still a bit of a mystery. If anyone knows of a concrete explanation…please share!

By: Sam H

Sam H — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 18:31:30 +0000

@17 Gregory: This is similar to my thinking – to me it’s obvious that the longitudal “wrapping” phenomenon is simply the wake of the storm being blown around the planet by the 1700+ km/hr easterly winds, although the active system itself appears to be pretty elongated as well (again, this is probably due to stretching caused by the winds). I dunno where the storm would be originating from, but my guess is from below the ammonia clouds.

@18: There’s COFFEE in that thunderhead!!!

By: Sean

Sean — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 17:29:36 +0000

Phil, you’re probably going to get sick of my posts rather quickly if you read them at all, but here goes: the storm was first spotted by Iranian amateur astronomer Sadegh Ghomizadeh on the evening of December 8-9, 2010: http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/highlights/112507364.html However instruments on the Cassini spacecraft detected lightning from the storm days before.

Also, nothing has been discovered on the planets using an eyepiece since the early 80′s. Everything discovered by amateurs on the planets for the last decade or so has been first spotted digitally using cameras (including this storm). The only thing still discovered today in astronomy using an eyeball at the eyepiece of a telescope has been comets.

By: Douglas Troy

Douglas Troy — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 17:18:49 +0000

Looks like what happens when I pour creamer into my coffee in the morning, which can mean only one thing … that’s right, Saturn is obviously made of coffee.

By: Gregory Ruderman

Gregory Ruderman — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 15:42:01 +0000

@Calli–
I think I was less than clear in what I was asking as I ran out of the office yesterday afternoon. I understand that storms themselves are major upwellings, but I was wondering what the ultimate source was. You can see beautiful pictures of von Karman vortex streets coming off of terrestrial mountains, and those wakes can clearly be seen for a long distance, but you wouldn’t make the argument that the entire length is anything but a local effect and a wake. So I guess my question is, is it true that the storm “wrapped itself around the planet”, or was it a more localized phenomenon whose downstream effects could be seen. The cause of the upwelling was a bit of a red herring in my comment, I guess.

By: Las Tormentas de Saturno. | Pablo Della Paolera

Las Tormentas de Saturno. | Pablo Della Paolera — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 13:37:07 +0000

[...] Psychedelic Saturn storm! [...]

By: Joseph G

Joseph G — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 11:26:32 +0000

Whoah… groovy.

By: Messier Tidy Upper

Messier Tidy Upper — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 09:15:23 +0000

@ ^ Mephane : Wind turbine farms on super-sized zeppelins floating in the gas giants atmospheres?

Incidentally, I could be mistaken but I think I read / heard somewhere (TV or video doco series?) that windspeeds inside the outer planets atmospheres actually increase the further out you go; ie. Saturn being far windier than Jupiter* and Neptune having the highest windspeeds of all. Although, Ouranos might perhaps be the exception to that as it seems unusally cool and inactive in comparison with the other gas giants?

* I was going to add ” .. only with less dramatic & colourful storms” thinking of the Great Red Spot and Jovian bands versus Saturn’s plainer butterscotch clouds – but then I remembered the images that created are this thread and topic and, nup, just can’t tenably say that now!

By: Mephane

Mephane — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 08:09:39 +0000

I have eventually come to the conclusion that giant storms like these might be commonplace on gas giants. Sure, not everyone of them has one all the time, but now we know of such enormouse storms happening on Jupiter (Red Spot!), Saturn and Neptune. Now also considering the short timeframe of observation we had, I would think that storms of this kind could be something to be expected to show up from time to time on a gas giant.

Now let’s just imagine what a Kardeshev I civilization might be able do if it could harness the amounts of energy in such a storm…

By: Marcin

Marcin — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 07:11:41 +0000

Wow, 300 000km is one light second! It’s really huge.

By: Ricky

Ricky — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 06:54:50 +0000

@D.Rose thanks for the detailed explanation. That helps to make more sense.

By: Messier Tidy Upper

Messier Tidy Upper — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 06:11:19 +0000

Just wow. Trippy!

Pyschedelic is certainly the word for this Saturnean storm.

By: Monster Storm…On Saturn

Monster Storm…On Saturn — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 03:48:45 +0000

[...] there was recently a storm on Saturn that was over 1/2 the size of Earth. The storm grew to be 180,000 miles long. Photos courtesy of [...]

By: Infinite123Lifer

Infinite123Lifer — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 03:34:19 +0000

This is so cool!

By: Calli Arcale

Calli Arcale — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 02:29:12 +0000

Gregory – storms on Earth are *also* plumes rising up through layers of the atmosphere. It typically requires a massive updraft to get them started, and that can punch through the top of the troposphere (which is why the top of a thunderhead shears off into that anvil shape).

By: Crux Australis

Crux Australis — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 01:56:28 +0000

Just like MRIs or thermal images are shown in false colour. The colours are there to show contrast, or highlight features we wouldn’t otherwise be able to see.

By: D.Rose

D.Rose — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 01:18:04 +0000

@Ricky
“In false-color” means the image isn’t being presented in the colors you’d see with the naked eye if you were there. In these infrared (light beyond the red the Human eye can see; also know/felt as heat) images of Saturn Phil is sharing with us, the colors represent cloud heights with warm colors (red/orange) being deeper clouds and cooler colors (blue/white) being higher in the atmosphere. In this context, the color scheme makes sense: The deeper you go, the warmer it gets.

By: Ricky

Ricky — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 00:58:35 +0000

What does “In False Color” mean?

By: CH

CH — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 00:33:09 +0000

Hi there – how deep is the deep blue hole on the right of the storm mosaic?

By: Gregory Ruderman

Gregory Ruderman — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 00:23:56 +0000

I’m no planetary scientist (darn), but how do we know that this is really a “storm” in the sense that I would think of one here on earth? It looks much more like something is upwelling from deep within the planet and the plume is interacting with the “surface” atmosphere. In that sense, it would be more like the effect of a volcano than a weather phenomenon. Maybe Saturn had a core-cano (corequake)? and we’re just seeing the very top of the plume?