Saturn's Massive Storm, Revealed (1 of 3) (IMAGE)
Caption
This is a comparison of thermal infrared images of Saturn (ESO/VLT VISIR instrument), compared to amateur visible-light imaging from Trevor Barry (Broken Hill, Australia) obtained on Jan. 19, 2011, during the mature phase of the northern storm. The second and fourth images are sensitive to Saturn's tropospheric temperatures, and show the churning storm clouds and the central dark/cold vortex. The third and fifth images are sensitive to much higher altitudes in Saturn's usually-stable stratosphere, where we see the unexpected beacons of infrared emission from ethane and methane, flanking the central cool region over the storm. This image relates to an article that appeared in the May 19, 2011, issue of Science Express, published by AAAS. The study, by Leigh Fletcher at University of Oxford and colleagues, was titled, "Thermal Structure and Dynamics of Saturn's Northern Springtime Disturbance."
Credit
Image courtesy of ESO/University of Oxford/L.N. Fletcher/T. Barry
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