Out and About

Here are a few pictures taken by the Cassini probe as it has been flying around Saturn, its moons and its rings.

The ninth picture in the series shows a view of Saturn's atmosphere taken from above the planet's northern hemisphere, seen from 336,000 miles away (The moon orbits the earth at about 240,000 miles, for comparison). Those swirly hurricane-looking things in the picture are actually about 14,000 miles wide, if I did my math right, which means they would swallow the little blue marble we hang out on maybe three times over. I think that qualifies as a Category Oh hurricane in the current system, in which 5 is the strongest and the "Oh" stands for "Uh-oh, we're doomed."

I realize I'm posting a piece about another world on Earth Day, but I figure a planet is unlikely to be jealous.