2025年10月5日
土星上的长期风暴系统
影像提供: NASA, JPL, ESA, Cassini Imaging Team, SSI
说明: 它是太阳系有史以来规模最大、持续时间最长的风暴之一。首次观测到土星北半球的这团云层一开始比地球还大，很快就蔓延到整个星球。2010年底首次特征云层形成于土星的北半球，起初比地球还大，不久后便蔓延至整个星球。当时不仅从地球上追踪了这场风暴，还由当时绕着土星运行的卡西尼号探测器也近距离追踪了它。此处所示的红外线假色影像拍摄于二月，橙色显示大气层深处的云层，而浅色则突显出较高的云层。土星环几乎以边缘对着我们，呈现为细长的蓝色水平线。扭曲的暗带是左上方太阳投射在云层顶部的土星环阴影。这场强烈的风暴是闪电产生的电波噪音源，人们认为它与土星北半球春季来临时的季节变化有关。在肆虐超过六个月后，这场标志性的风暴环绕整个星球，并试图吸收自己的尾巴-这意外地导致它逐渐消失。
明日的图片: lemmon tails
Due to the lapse in federal government funding, NASA is not updating APOD website. We sincerely regret this inconvenience.
由于美国联邦政府资金中断，NASA目前暂停更新APOD网站。对此带来的不便，我们深感抱歉。
英文原文:
Explanation: It was one of the largest and longest lived storms ever recorded in our Solar System. First seen in late 2010, the featured cloud formation in the northern hemisphere of Saturn started larger than the Earth and soon spread completely around the planet. The storm was tracked not only from Earth but from up close by the robotic Cassini spacecraft then orbiting Saturn. Pictured here in false colored infrared in February, orange colors indicate clouds deep in the atmosphere, while light colors highlight clouds higher up. The rings of Saturn are seen nearly edge-on as the thin blue horizontal line. The warped dark bands are the shadows of the rings cast onto the cloud tops by the Sun to the upper left. A source of radio noise from lightning , the intense storm was thought to relate to seasonal changes when spring emerges in the north of Saturn . After raging for over six months, the iconic storm circled the entire planet and then tried to absorb its own tail — which surprisingly caused it to fade away.
