For this week's APOD, I chose the picture called Saturn Storm, uploaded on January 19, 2011. It is a picture of an unusually bright storm erupting on Saturn, taken by the Cassini spacecraft with a blue filter.
The storm first erupted late last year in the gas giant's northern hemisphere. Saturn's rings are also seen in the photo, casting shadows on the planet's southern hemisphere. First spotted in early December, Saturn could be seen rising in our predawn sky. While the Cassini spacecraft was orbiting Saturn, it was able to capture this up close look at the disturbance area. It was taken on December 24, 2010, 1.8 million kilometers away from the planet. As time went on , the storm evolved and and it has grown to stretch partway around the planet. By January 5, 2011, it spanned more than 100 degrees of longitude. The main part of the disturbance is half the size of earth, but with the tail included, the whole eruption is 36,000 miles long.
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