Colossal Hurricane-Like Storm Found on Saturn

A
colossal, swirling storm with a well-developed eye is churning at
Saturn's south pole, the first time a truly hurricane-like storm has
been detected on a planet other than Earth, NASA images showed on
Thursday.

The
storm on the giant, ringed planet is about 5,000 miles wide, measuring
roughly two thirds the diameter of Earth, with winds howling clockwise
at 350 mph.

Jupiter's
Great Red Spot, which swirls counterclockwise, is far bigger, but is
less like a hurricane because it lacks the typical eye and eye wall.

The
images -- essentially a 14-frame movie -- were captured over a period
of three hours on October 11 by the U.S. space agency's Cassini
spacecraft as it passed about 210,000 miles from the planet as part of
its exploration of Saturn and its moons