What was the biggest storm in our Solar System’s history?

It’s bigger than anything on Earth. Hell, it’s bigger than Earth!

“More days to come / new places to go
I’ve got to leave / it’s time for a show
Here I am / Rock you like a hurricane!” –The Scorpions

On Earth, hurricanes can span hundreds of miles, bringing devastation wherever they land.

*2007′s hurricane Felix, with sustained winds of 165 miles per hour, as imaged from the ISS. Image credit: NASA.*

But on our Solar System’s gas giants, storms can far surpass anything ever seen on Earth.

*A false-color image highlighting Saturn’s hurricane over its north pole, inside the much larger hexagon-shaped feature. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI.*

At Saturn’s north pole, inside the two-Earth-sized polar hexagon, a hurricane nearly 2000 kilometers wide rages, with wind speeds over 500 kilometers-per-hour (320 mph).

*Jupiter’s great red spot (from Cassini, imaged in 2000) and Earth (imaged from Apollo 17 in 1972), shown together for size comparison. Image credit: NASA / Brian0918 at English Wikipedia.*

On Jupiter, the great red spot, seen for over 350 years, could fit between 2-and-3 Earths inside of it, with winds exceeding 430 kph (267 mph).

*Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / Space Science Institute, of the start of the 2010–2011 storm. Image acquired December 5, 2010; annotations by E. Siegel.*

But from December of 2010 to August of 2011, the largest storm of all occurred on Saturn.

*Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / Space Science Institute, of the great storm’s evolution over a period of 8 months.*

For over 200 days, this Saturnian hurricane raged, maintaining its head until May.

*Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / Space Science Institute, of Saturn (during its storm) in false-color. The lack of whitish/blue in the storm shows an absence of methane.*

It came to encircle the entire planet, as methane-poor tail end (in blue, false color) stands out against the methane-rich (in red) remainder.

February 23/24, 2011, comparison images of the same storm on Saturn. Images were taken 11 hours (1 Saturn-day) apart, at a resolution of 64 miles-per-pixel. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / Space Science Institute.

Viewed 11 hours (1 Saturn-day) apart, we determined the hurricane migrates across Saturn at 100 kph (60 mph).

*Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / Space Science Institute.*

These storms have occurred every 20–30 years since first seen in 1876, as hot air rises, cools and falls.

*Image credit: ESO/Univ. of Oxford/T. Barry, of Saturn’s 2011 storm in visible and various infrared wavelengths.*

2011′s was the largest of all, large enough to contain ten-to-twelve Earths, but may be surpassed next time: in the 2030s.

Mostly Mute Monday tells the story of a single astronomical phenomenon or object primarily in visuals, with no more than 200 words of text.

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