Cassini Watches Storm that Fizzled when it Ran into its Own Tail

Scientists from Cassini mission watched a massive storm that engulfed Saturn and fizzled when it ran into its own tail. This is the first time that scientists have observed a massive storm consume itself in this way anywhere in the solar system.

"This Saturn storm behaved like a terrestrial hurricane - but with a twist unique to Saturn," Andrew Ingersoll, a Cassini imaging team member based at the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, and a co-author, said in a press statement. "Even the giant storms at Jupiter don't consume themselves like this, which goes to show that nature can play many awe-inspiring variations on a theme and surprise us again and again." 

It is only on Saturn that such storms can exist, as they do not have any land to act as a barrier, because such terrestrial storms often collide with mountains and expand themselves. This massive storm was first observed Dec. 5, 2010, by Cassini's radio and plasma wave subsystem and imaging cameras that initially erupted 3 degrees north latitude. The cameras kept a track as the storm started heading toward the west. Over a period of time, the storm with thunder and lightning churned around the planet, stretching around 190,000 miles in circumference.  

This storm that was one of the most massive storms to appear to break out in Saturn's northern hemisphere once every Saturn year, was finally washed out in 2011 when the head of the storm ran into the vortex. Why such an encounter caused the storm to fade is still unknown.

The previous longest storm detected on Saturn was Storm Alley, but it was 100 times smaller than the latest northern storm.