Saturn’s Eyes
One of my favourite childhood movies was “Flight of the Navigator” as it truly arrested my imagination at the time. I remember after watching it for the first time as a kid how I wished Max would come fetch me and whiz me around the galaxy. Even today as I approach my 26th birthday I would do anything for the opportunity (unless probes are involved), but until I have my very own inter-stellar UFO, or an alien girlfriend with one, I have to settle for the excellent open source software packages Stellarium and Celestia.
One thing I like to do when exploring the Solar system with Celestia is travel to one of Saturn’s moons, zoom up real close, adjust the view so that the moon’s horizon is visible and accelerate time to see its mother planet set or rise beyond the horizon. I can only imagine what it must be like to experience the sight for real as those majestic rings hypnotize your senses.
Last year I wrote Saturn’s Eclipse and the awesome images returned by the Cassini orbiter. I expected more amazing things to be sent back by the craft but nothing as bizarre as it uncovered recently. In November last year at Saturn’s southern pole Cassini discovered an 8000 km wide tempest that looks freakishly like a human eye.
As it is said that eyes are the windows to the soul, the eye of this storm allows us to peer into Saturn as the skies are clear enough to provide the deepest view of Saturn yet. It is also believed that the southern pole is within the eye and that the storm is locked into place around it.
But things get more bizarre at the planet’s northern pole- This month Cassini photographed the most bizarre long-lasting weather pattern that has the shape of a hexagon! The feature is so big that one can almost fit four Earth’s into it. This pattern has never been seen on any other planet except for Saturn where circularly-shaped waves and convective cells dominate. Strange indeed that at each of Saturn’s poles such different phenomena exist. It seems that the goddess of agriculture also turns out to be one of enigma. I can’t wait to float above these incredible weather systems in my own private “Trimaxion Drone Ship.”
See also:
Bizarre Hexagon Spotted on Saturn
Freak One-Eyed Monster Storm Spotted on Saturn
Images courtesy of:
Wikipedia
NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute via Space.com
NASA/JPL/University of Arizona via Space.com
April 1st, 2007 at 3:16 am
A Very interesting post, these are amazing phenomena. I too have imagined what it would be like to travel the universe and discover things that would astound all civilization.
As always a brilliant and interesting post, I will be sure to check out “Flight of the Navigator”
Thanks Dude.
April 3rd, 2007 at 8:01 am
Hey man! I will take those probes anywhere on my body to see things like that with my own eyes! I am currently only realizing how big the Earth is but soon it will be too small for me too.
April 5th, 2007 at 12:56 pm
As child while falling asleep I used to get this incredible feeling that I was curled up, fetus-like, floating deep in space among the stars. It seems odd that we are so fascinated by space, but then again it’s human nature to be intrigued by what we don’t understand. The only question that remains is whether or not we would get to experience it in our lifetime.
April 5th, 2007 at 2:14 pm
Afflict, thank you for reading! Let us know what you think of the movie; I haven’t seen it in ages.
Alfling, on second thought you might have a point with the probes. Earth has many marvels that inspire us in its own right, but continuously experiencing things that stretch the imagination is a prospect that I would do a lot for.
Pj, those are cool dreams to have. I remember reading up on astral-projection and wishing I could explore space while I sleep at night. I think our fascination is tied to what I mentioned to Alfling in that Space holds so much potential. I wish growing to be a truly space fairing species becomes a priority for mankind. Imagine the wealth knowledge that would stream in to society if every family had the ability to explore the cosmos at their leisure. Still a LONG way off, but one can dream. If SpaceX AND Virgin Galactic are successful in their endeavours then we might just be able to spend a holiday on Mars, or at least in a space hotel, in our life time. Here’s to their success!
September 3rd, 2007 at 12:35 pm
They truly are amazing shapes on the poles. Its sort of a shame that NASA will crash a probe carrying about 500 tons of plutonium into that eye on 07.07.08. Search “The Lucifer Project” for a very scary prospect. Lucifer being “the light bringer” I imagine they hope to create a second sun by exploding the highly volatile hydrogen atmosphere… It was tried once already with the Galileo probe, which carried a payload of 70 odd ton of plutonium and left a scar on the side of saturn about the size of Earth. The second probe will penetrate deeper into the atmosphere because it will be flown straight into the eye of the storm at the southern pole. Could all be fiction but I guess we will find out soon enough.
I did however see the movie Flight of the navigator, also probably around the age of 15. I loved it, great movie, very inspirational and a cool adventure. I am not sure I want the probes, but the travel experience would be great. I just hope I get enough time to grab my cybershot and a spare battery…
I do NOT have a 40 foot satellite dish sticking out of my A…..
March 2nd, 2010 at 4:58 pm
It is really interesting and also explodes the facts which are hardly known. I would request you to kindly provide more information.