Science Art: “The Rose,” NASA Image of the Day Gallery,

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This is not actually a flower. It’s a giant hurricane – Saturn’s answer to Jupiter’s Big Red Spot.

From the NASA Image of the Day Gallery description:

This image is among the first sunlit views of Saturn’s north pole captured by Cassini’s imaging cameras. When the spacecraft arrived in the Saturnian system in 2004, it was northern winter and the north pole was in darkness. Saturn’s north pole was last imaged under sunlight by NASA’s Voyager 2 in 1981; however, the observation geometry did not allow for detailed views of the poles. Consequently, it is not known how long this newly discovered north-polar hurricane has been active.

In this scheme, red indicates low clouds and green indicates high ones.

Every pixel is a mile across. It’s a big storm. A blooming big storm.

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