Astronomy Picture of the Day

    Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
      fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
                    written by a professional astronomer.

                              2019 September 15

                        A Long Storm System on Saturn
           Image Credit: Cassini Imaging Team, SSI, JPL, ESA, NASA

   Explanation: It was one of the largest and longest lived storms ever
   recorded in our Solar System. First seen in late 2010, the above cloud
   formation in the northern hemisphere of Saturn started larger than the
   Earth and soon spread completely around the planet. The storm was
   tracked not only from Earth but from up close by the robotic Cassini
   spacecraft currently orbiting Saturn. Pictured here in false colored
   infrared in February, orange colors indicate clouds deep in the
   atmosphere, while light colors highlight clouds higher up. The rings of
   Saturn are seen nearly edge-on as the thin blue horizontal line. The
   warped dark bands are the shadows of the rings cast onto the cloud tops
   by the Sun to the upper left. A source of radio noise from lightning,
   the intense storm was thought to relate to seasonal changes when spring
   emerges in the north of Saturn. After raging for over six months, the
   iconic storm circled the entire planet and then tried to absorb its own
   tail -- which surprisingly caused it to fade away.

                      Tomorrow's picture: quantum moon
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       Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
            NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
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                             & Michigan Tech. U.

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