Saturn Storm Captured By Spacecraft: Stunning Images Show Storm Eight Times The Size Of Earth (PHOTOS)

This storm on Saturn is bigger than you can possibly imagine.

According to NASA, it's actually eight times the surface area of Earth. It is the biggest storm ever observed on the planet, and is at least 500 times bigger than any other storm observed by the Cassini spacecraft that orbits the ringed planet.

It seems the beast of a storm is as destructive as it is large.

From NASA:

The storm is about 500 times larger than the biggest storm previously seen by Cassini during several months from 2009 to 2010. Scientists studied the sounds of the new storm's lightning strikes and analyzed images taken between December 2010 and February 2011. Data from Cassini's radio and plasma wave science instrument showed the lightning flash rate as much as 10 times more frequent than during other storms monitored since Cassini's arrival to Saturn in 2004. The data appear in a paper published this week in the journal Nature.

Scientists are excited by the storm because it provides further insight into the weather patterns of the planet. Apparently this occurrence shows just how much the change of seasons can affect the planet's major weather.

Scroll down for stunning images from NASA.

The Storm (via NASA):

As the storm moves (via NASA):

False-color images showing intensity (via NASA):

Comments

[Steven Argondezzi]

05:27 AM on 07/12/2011

Oh wow, it looks pretty dirty, actually...

[PRONESE]

10:10 AM on 07/11/2011

Comment Redacted.
More Coffee...
R/ PRONESE

[cartograffer]

08:56 AM on 07/11/2011

Maybe the sci-fi channel can devote a half hour to covering the solar system's weather. "Wear a hat if your visiting Saturn today..."

[Oldhistorian69]

12:02 AM on 07/11/2011

All I can say is WOW! This in interesting science. This storm is huge, it is on a gas planet. It may help us understand other planets and even our own.
Many of these comments seem childish and immature. I, for one, am very glad to see these images. I wonder hard the winds are blowing and how high these clouds rise.

[BannedInBoston]

09:08 PM on 07/10/2011

Our prayers are with the Saturnians....

[cuoi]

11:19 PM on 07/10/2011

Do they pray? If so, to whom or what?

[BannedInBoston]

02:20 PM on 07/11/2011

To the god Saturn, of course....

[Gwendolyn Sherry Kinman]

08:46 PM on 07/10/2011

-dang-Earth is a really safe place to live after all

[RightThinkin]

08:35 PM on 07/10/2011

Have you ever asked yourself why are we trying to get to Mars when we haven't even colonized the moon.What, it takes 2 years to get to mars I'm guessing and three days to get to the moon .Whats so important about a long dead planet that is so high of a risk to travel to?.Does anyone remember those photo's of some green human like thing pushing down another one like it in front of perhaps, the Mars Rover.I bet maybe why we haven't been to the moon is because these government sons of bitc$es found something there, "maybe", the history of what really happened in those missing chapters of the first years of mankind. After all they skipped colonizing the moon and shot for a far away planet.

[BannedInBoston]

09:23 PM on 07/10/2011

I'll tell you why. Because NASA knows (though they'll never admit it), that there are artfifacts of a _dead civilization on Mars. (In fact, it may not even be _dead but just gone underground.) If you look at all the rover pictures carefully (and WITHOUT PREJUDICE), you can see that whole landscape is LITTERED with broken pieces of what look to have been artificial objects. Orbital pictures too reveal a lot including a vertical tower that casts a long shadow. (There is plenty there besides the infamous "Face" which is always, unfortunately, the focus of debate about this.) There is an entire field of tetrahedral pyramids. There are the so-called "glass tubes" which look like nothing more than remains of some kind of transit system. I'm not making this stuff up. And NASA types stay up late nights explaining everything away as "natural formations" -- quite a stretch in some cases....

[westbygoddoug]

09:44 PM on 07/10/2011

I am a skeptic by nature, but I do admit there are things in the photos that defy natural explanation. Then also as a skeptic I read books not in our modern Christian Bible and the Book of Enoch could very well describe a race of ancient astronauts...crazy when you think about all of it, and the astronomical knowledge of the ancients, which was way beyond their observational capabilities (no telescopes of a scale we know today).

[Buster Nitchski]

06:50 AM on 07/11/2011

very interesting. thank you.

[cartograffer]

08:53 AM on 07/11/2011

I presume it's intended as humor to namecall gov't officials (and indirectly their mothers) because of a far-out, hypothetical cover up!

[RightThinkin]

10:09 AM on 07/11/2011

Hypothetical?.since when is skipping the moon and shooting for mars Hypothetical?.
I guess you believe our government doesn't steal, cheat, lie,beg,murder,?.
Ever read mk ultra?.or cia dealings with drug crime lords?.It's people like you that go with the flow until your flushed down the toilet.Wake up try reading between the lines keep your mind opened the world is a scary place quit being the sheep.

[RightThinkin]

08:24 PM on 07/10/2011

So why is it important to watch a storm on another planet that none of us will ever be on instead of trying to figure out how we can control the weather here on Earth?.If not control at least figure out how we can clean the air up a bit.I mean really who cares about a storm on a planet thats pretty much useless there's no value there,Can't grow food there,no women there,you can't see the surface,it's nothing but gases,blow the dam thing up I say.I think we should colonize the moon already think about it if we had done that already a long time ago we might be space traveling.Find some other Alien "female preferablly" race out there to learn from

[Ellamenta]

08:53 PM on 07/10/2011

Is there a way to flag for seriously appalling attitude?
First, we learn a great deal about our own planet from observations of other planets.
Second, this is another planet in our own solar system, so we may very well interact with it in the future.
Third, the pictures are awesome and beautiful.

[GoNoles03]

12:07 AM on 07/11/2011

Wow. And not a good wow.

[nlightenup]

04:39 PM on 07/10/2011

I'm always fascinated when storms on other planets (Jupiter, now Saturn) have the same kinds of swirling patterns in them that show up in a lot of polished agates. The near and the far.

[politicaltimes]

04:17 PM on 07/10/2011

Supermassive Storm Raging On Saturn
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fDwFyxQNds

[BannedInBoston]

09:29 PM on 07/10/2011

Same pictures to the accompaniment of dramatic music (for Holz's "The Planets", I think). Not worth clicking the link....

[deckercat]

02:20 PM on 07/10/2011

fema still won't be able to find it.

[lisa wildlife]

10:25 AM on 07/10/2011

levi oracle, I think it's time to stop the insults and bickering I am not trying to tell anyone what to believe; I am simply saying where I got my beliefs and I don't like things contradicted with little or no evidence. people should just do what works for them and I think a lot more people should tell themselves that when they are so quick to judge

[roscoewpa]

01:06 AM on 07/10/2011

I think its just a screen to hide behind. Its probably paradise there. In fact im sure the ufo from area 51 flys there with our govenment officals. It seems their head are always in the clouds. All the while the rest of us are down hear on a polluted planet starving to death financially and physically

[Kiri the Unicorn]

11:23 AM on 07/10/2011

Ummm... I hope that you're just kidding.

You're just kidding, right?

[whirlpool]

11:29 AM on 07/10/2011

And people think I am crazy for believing in unicorns.

[Just a passerby]

07:57 AM on 07/10/2011

gawd, you're a tr0llish idi*t. Take your politics and shove 'em.

[FrankLuchan]

03:27 PM on 07/10/2011

Gawd, you're a clue 1e$$ denier.

[Kiri the Unicorn]

11:21 AM on 07/10/2011

Venus is a cautionary tale, sweetie. You really should pay more attention.

[FrankLuchan]

03:26 PM on 07/10/2011

Not in the slightest sweetie.

[snurps]

10:35 PM on 07/09/2011

Hey baggers we have a new place for you guys to explore.

[cartograffer]

08:59 AM on 07/11/2011

Wonder if this science article on the conservative version of Huffpost featured someone saying, "Hey libs, we have a new place for you guys to explore"? :-)