Saturn’s ‘great white spots’ linked to water
About once every Saturn year—29.5 of our years—a mysterious great white spot erupts in the planet’s atmosphere that can outshine the planet’s brilliant rings. This image shows the last outbreak, which began as a spot in the north in late 2010 that then spread into a band bigger than Earth. Now, planetary scientists writing online in Nature Geoscience propose that these periodic superstorms arise from water.