The Storm of Saturn

That's a real-color image of the massive hurricane at the north pole of Saturn, as recently imaged by the Cassini probe. Yes, it's still alive and kicking; it's the Little Space Probe That Could, apparently.

The eye of the storm is 1,250 miles in diameter. That's larger than the Gulf of Mexico. If it were on Earth, the hurricane would cover the entire Pacific Ocean and then some. Look closely (you can piclick to go to the article, where a much larger image is available) and you can see the weird hexagonal shape of the outer edge of the storm. Cause unknown. Churt has a hypothesis, based upon his study of the Electric Universe theory, that it's the result of a massive electrical current passing through the poles of the planet. It certainly makes sense; electro-magnetism will often create standing patterns in various types of conductive materials. Well, we won't know for sure in my lifetime, but it's intriguing to speculate.

This, by the way, is what NASA is supposed to be doing: exploring the far reaches of space. Instead of flying rattletrap spacebuses in low orbit and coddling religious nuts. This single image is, to my mind, worth the entire price tag of the Cassini program.