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NASA's Cassini spacecraft recently captured pictures of a hurricane-like storm right over Saturn's south pole. The photos show the storm's well-developed "eye" ringed by towering clouds. The "hurricane" is approximately 8,000 km (5,000 miles) across, or two-thirds the diameter of Earth.
A movie taken by Cassini's camera over a three-hour period revealed winds around Saturn's south pole blowing clockwise at 550 km (350 miles) per hour. The camera also saw the shadow cast by the thick ring of clouds surrounding the pole, and two spiral arms of clouds extending from the central ring. These ring clouds, 30-75 km (20-45 miles) above those in the center of the storm, are 2-5 times taller than...