Mysterious Light Show Seen at Saturn

Hello ATS,

My favorite planet Saturn again reaches the headlines.
When will they finally announce that Saturn was our " old sun " and that is now dormant. Anyway Casini took some baffeling photos I just wished we would be able to see all photos not just three of them...

Let me know what you think of them.

SOURCE

An inexplicable new broad region of auroral light has been photographed at Saturn's polar cap."We've never seen an aurora like this elsewhere," said Tom Stallard, an RCUK Academic Fellow working with Cassini data at the University of Leicester. "It's not just a ring of aurorae like those we've seen at Jupiter or Earth. This one covers an enormous area across the pole. Our current ideas on what forms Saturn's aurorae predict that this region should be empty, so finding such a bright one here is a fantastic surprise."

These colorful atmospheric light shows are caused when charged particles stream along the magnetic field of a planet and into its atmosphere. On Earth the charged particles come from the solar wind – a stream of particles that emanates from the sun. Skywatchers at high latitudes know the resulting displays as the Northern Lights.

Jupiter's main auroral ring, caused by interactions internal to Jupiter's magnetic environment, is constant in size. Saturn's main aurora, which is caused by the solar wind, changes size dramatically as the wind varies.

The newly observed aurora at Saturn, however, doesn't fit into either category.

"Saturn's unique auroral features are telling us there is something special and unforeseen about this planet's magnetosphere and the way it interacts with the solar wind and the planet's atmosphere," said Nick Achilleos, a scientist on the Cassini magnetometer team at the University College London. "Trying to explain its origin will no doubt lead us to physics which uniquely operates in the environment of Saturn."

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[edit on 14/11/08 by Jbird]

great news, but this was already posted twice on ATS (mine was second haha , yours is third on the subject )

Please direct your comments to this ongoing Thread ( posted on 13/11/08 @ 02:40 PM )

Mysterious Glowing Aurora over Saturn Confounds Scientists



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