SETIsLady
12-19-2004, 09:32 PM
FINDING yourself in a thunderstorm on Saturn would be a truly shocking experience, scientists have discovered.
New data from the Cassini spacecraft shows that lightning on the ringed planet is a million times stronger than on Earth. But even terrestrial lightning can deliver between 100 million and one billion volts of electricity.
Scientists compared the strengths of Earth and Saturnian lightning by detecting its radio signals.
Cassini, the NASA probe currently orbiting Saturn, picked up radio signals from Earth lightning as far out as 89,200 kilometres. But as the spacecraft approached Saturn last July, it started detecting lightning signals at a point about 161 million kilometres from the planet.
Dr Don Gurnett, a space physicist from the University of Iowa, said: "This means that radio signals from Saturn’s lightning are on the order of one million times stronger than Earth’s lightning. That’s just astonishing to me."
Some of the signals were linked to storm systems on Saturn observed by Cassini.
Dr Gurnett presented research data on the lightning measurements at a meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco. The findings also appeared in the on-line edition of the journal Science.
Emissions from Earth lightning can often be heard as crackles on portable radios tuned to the AM waveband.
Lightning is the most dangerous and frequently encountered weather hazard people on Earth experience. Around the world there are 100 lightning strikes every second, causing 200 deaths and 750 severe injuries in the United States alone each year.
http://news.scotsman.com/scitech.cfm?id=1448772004
New data from the Cassini spacecraft shows that lightning on the ringed planet is a million times stronger than on Earth. But even terrestrial lightning can deliver between 100 million and one billion volts of electricity.
Scientists compared the strengths of Earth and Saturnian lightning by detecting its radio signals.
Cassini, the NASA probe currently orbiting Saturn, picked up radio signals from Earth lightning as far out as 89,200 kilometres. But as the spacecraft approached Saturn last July, it started detecting lightning signals at a point about 161 million kilometres from the planet.
Dr Don Gurnett, a space physicist from the University of Iowa, said: "This means that radio signals from Saturn’s lightning are on the order of one million times stronger than Earth’s lightning. That’s just astonishing to me."
Some of the signals were linked to storm systems on Saturn observed by Cassini.
Dr Gurnett presented research data on the lightning measurements at a meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco. The findings also appeared in the on-line edition of the journal Science.
Emissions from Earth lightning can often be heard as crackles on portable radios tuned to the AM waveband.
Lightning is the most dangerous and frequently encountered weather hazard people on Earth experience. Around the world there are 100 lightning strikes every second, causing 200 deaths and 750 severe injuries in the United States alone each year.
http://news.scotsman.com/scitech.cfm?id=1448772004