Cassini has shot some amazing new photos of Saturn this summer. This one gives you an amazing look at the atmosphere of Saturn, which is composed of hydrogen and small amounts of helium and methane. Wind speeds on Saturn’s surface can reach speeds up to 1,100 miles per hour. Lightning storms on Saturn? You bet
by Jeff Mondak and Alex Stangl
Since 1930, quite a run
It always was the smallest one,
And oh so distant from the sun
But Pluto’s not a planet anymore
Astronomers who had a look
Said “go re-write your science book”
They gave it the celestial hook
Now Pluto’s not a planet anymore
Listen James and Janet
Some experts said to can it
Now Pluto’s not a planet
No, Pluto’s not a planet anymore
Uranus may be famous
But Mercury’s feeling hot
For Pluto was a planet,
And somehow now it’s not
Neptune’s nervous, Saturn’s sad,
And jumpin’ Jupiter is hoppin’ mad
Eight remain of nine we had
Pluto’s not a planet anymore
They held the meeting here on Earth
Mars and Venus proved their worth
But puny Pluto lacked the girth
So Pluto’s not a planet anymore
Listen James and Janet
Some experts said to can it
Now Pluto’s not a planet
No, Pluto’s not a planet anymore
They met in Prague and voted
Now Pluto’s been demoted
Oh, Pluto’s not a planet anymore
Have fun.
This is wonderful. Space is rad.
The terrestrial planets of our solar system.
What glows yellow and behaves like a liquid and a solid at the same time? Water — at least in the strange form it appears to take deep within Uranus and Neptune. This exotic stuff might help explain why both planets have bizarre magnetic fields.
Simulations in 1999 and an experiment in 2005 hinted that water might behave like both a solid and a liquid at very high pressures and temperatures. This water forms at temperatures above 2000 °C and supposedly glows yellow.
The extreme conditions that exist deep within Uranus and Neptune could be ideal for it to form. But whether it really occurs inside these planets, and in what quantities, has never been clear because of uncertainty over the exact pressures and temperatures needed to make it.
Now the most detailed computer models yet suggest both planets possess a thick layer of such stuff. The simulations assume the most extreme conditions possible inside both planets, with temperatures reaching up to 6000 °C and pressures 7 million times the atmospheric pressure on Earth. The results show that a layer of superionic water should extend from the rocky core of each planet out to about halfway to the surface.
More at New Scientist.
Submitted by Vitor Diel/bumerangue.
The long-sought double hurricane at Venus’s south pole has disappeared. New images from ESA’s Venus Express spacecraft shows that the so-called polar vortex, which was thought to swirl steadily around the planet’s poles at all times, is actually a chaotic maelstrom.
A gigantic hurricane with two calm, dark eyes was discovered at Venus’s north pole by the Pioneer Venus spacecraft in 1979. This double-eyed feature, dubbed the “dipole of Venus,” was thought to form when warm air from the planet’s equator rose and traveled toward the pole, where it cooled and sank to form a deep, swirling atmospheric pit.
For decades, astronomers expected to find a similar vortex at Venus’s south pole. While Venus itself rotates slowly, just once every 117 Earth days, its atmosphere whips around the planet once every 4 Earth days. This “super-rotating” atmosphere ought to form massive storms at both poles, astronomers reasoned.
So when Venus Express saw what looked like a double vortex at the south pole shortly after arriving at Venus in April 2006, scientists took it as confirmation that these whorls were stable and permanent. But as they watched, the vortices shifted and morphed.
“We had ironically observed it in a dipole configuration right at the beginning of the mission,” said astronomer Giuseppe Piccioni of the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics in Rome. “But we soon discovered that this was just a coincidence, since the dipole in reality is not a stable feature on Venus but just one shape among others.” Piccioni presented his results at the European Planetary Science Congress in Rome on September 23.
Data from the VIRTIS (Visible and InfraRed Thermal Imaging Spectrometer) instrument on Venus Express also showed that the dynamics at Venus’s poles are quite different from the rest of the planet. Near the equator, the wind speeds vary greatly with altitude, with wind speeds doubling from the lower clouds to the cloud tops, Piccioni said. By contrast, the 1800-mile-wide polar vortex rotates almost like a solid body. These two zones of rotation are separated by a ring of cold air called a “cold collar” surrounding the polar region.
Story from: Wired Science
Written by: Lisa Grossman
Saturn’s auroras in UV light.
You can watch the planets, moons and asteroids of our solar system move in proportional time with this awesome visualiser. Set the date and speed, as well as the model (Copernican or the pre-Renaissance Tychonian/geocentric model) and watch the physics happen. Unfortunately, it doesn’t depict the degradation of orbits over time, nor does the sun explode when set a few billion years in the future. Still cool, though!
The Jets of Enceladus.
On Jan. 31, 2011, NASA’s Cassini spacecraft passed by several of Saturn’s intriguing moons, snapping images along the way. Cassini passed within about 37,282 miles of Enceladus and 17,398 miles of Helene. It also caught a glimpse of Mimas in front of Saturn’s rings. In this image, Cassini snapped a picture of the famous jets erupting from the south polar terrain of Enceladus.
