New radio observations show that behind Saturn's beige veneer lies a storm system with its own powerful rhythms.
revealed new details about the atmosphere’s surprisingly varied inner life. Just like Jupiter, storms have left their mark on Saturn, altering chemical compositions for years afterward.While Saturn’s major storms are not as persistent as the Great Red Spot, they splash across the ringed planet in dramatic fashion. Every 20 to 30 years, they spin up like massive hurricanes and swirl their way around the planet, though no one knows for sure what causes them.
The new study relied on observations from the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array radio telescope back in 2015, about four years after the megastorm. The results were revelatory and allowed the researchers to look deep into Saturn’s cloud layers, which appeared disturbed. The storm had caused ammonia vapor to precipitate down to lower levels, perhaps for hundreds of years to come.
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