Primal Space
๐ค SpeakerAppearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
It certainly won't go anywhere for another few decades at least.
And as it continues to gobble up smaller storms, it could well be that it stays as a permanent feature.
Wind speeds measure up to 430 kilometers around the walls.
However, in the center, an eye can indeed be found.
Here the air is relatively motionless, a stark contrast to what it's like in any direction for thousands of kilometers.
Number two, Saturn's storm.
Saturn, like a lot of other planets with atmospheres, also has beautiful polar vortices, one found on each of its poles.
Saturn's south pole has a relatively normal yet very large vortex and eye found in the center, with many smaller storms circling it.
However, the really eye-catching storm is found in the north pole, which has been dubbed Saturn's hexagon.
In a similar fashion to Jupiter's hexagon structure of storms, Saturn goes a step further and exhibits an actual hexagon which stretches for 30,000 kilometers across.
Each one of the sides of the hexagon about the size of Earth.
The explanation for why this hexagon exists is not known for sure, but some experiments have recreated a hexagon in a circular tank of liquid by using just the right speed and gradient of flow.
Cassini, as it passed by the central vortex, captured this stunning close-up of the cloud's structure found in the center.
However, these storms did not put Saturn at number two on the list.
The biggest storm on Saturn was named the Great White Spot.
These are temporary storms which appear every few decades, the last one forming about 10 years ago.
What makes these storms so big is that they are very long, sometimes even looping around the entire planet as they travel.
They are thought to appear in conjunction with Saturnian seasons forming as the atmosphere cools in a hemisphere.
Leaving us with the biggest storm found in the solar system.
Number one, the Carrington event.