U.S.A.
Everyone Else
Health
Science
Business
Technology
Sports
Video Games
Entertainment
Future
Humour
NEWS > SCIENCE > ASTRONOMERS EYE CLIMATE CHANGE AS CHIEF CULPRIT BEHIND MASSIVE STORM ON SATURN
ASTRONOMERS EYE CLIMATE CHANGE AS CHIEF CULPRIT BEHIND MASSIVE STORM ON SATURN
August 8 2011
Washington, D.C. – There is a massive storm brewing. A storm that could, as a result of its sheer power, completely wipe away everything human beings have ever done. That storm isn’t a hurricane or some metaphorical political debate, it is a massive swirling mass located millions of miles away from us.
A new storm system has rapidly formed on our massive solar neighbour, Saturn, a storm eight times bigger than the surface of the planet Earth which has no apparent intent to cease swirling. It’s a beast of a storm, bigger than anything seen here, releasing ten lightning bolts a second and taking over a huge swath of that massive planet. While massive storms are common on Saturn, the size and ferocity of this particular conflagration has fascinated astronomers and concerned many that such an event could occur on our own planet.
“It’s important to study these types of events because they reflect planetary ecology which, even if the makeup of Saturn is fundamentally different than our own, still speaks to events on Earth,” said Michelle Wassam of Georgetown University. “What we are primarily concerned about is what are the conditions which created this storm and could such events occur on Earth. We believe that it is indeed possible and obviously a storm eight times the size of Earth would be a bad thing.”
The storm began last December and has only increased since.
“We believe that the ferocity of this storm is related to global climate change on Saturn. Much like storms on Earth increase with global temperature fluctuations, the ecology of Saturn is affected in much the same way. This is a sign of things to come on Earth,” continued Wassam. “It is entirely possible that we will see similar events occur on Earth, which of course will be devastating. Saturn is capable of weathering such storms because of her size, but Earth is far more susceptible.”
Saturn is the second largest planet in the solar system.
“There is little doubt that climate change, no matter what causes it, will have an impact on weather systems. Some will increase in power and frequency and others will decrease but with that said it is unlikely we will see a storm like the one which is raging on Saturn currently,” said Scrape TV Science analyst Dr. Howard Poe. “Simply put, we don’t have the mass to support such a storm. It is physically impossible for a storm to be larger than the planet. That is just basic physics. An event cannot be larger than its source. That doesn’t mean we can’t have destructive storms, but nothing like this. Likely we would see an equivalent in terms of percentage.”
Much of the content of the storm system is believed to be composed of hydrogen and helium, a much more volatile mix than anything on Earth. 
“The real question isn’t the size of the storm, the real question is what is the cause of the event. Have years of mining and pollution contributed to climate change on that planet like it has done here? Does that mean there are major populations of dwellers on Saturn? If so, what can we learn from their mistakes,” continued Poe. “We are beholden to learn as much as we can about events like this so that we can prevent such eventualities from happening here. No one wants to see planet consuming storms and if the people of Saturn can lead us to a solution we are obliged to listen.”
So far no one from Saturn has been willing to publicly acknowledge global climate change.
Anna Phillips, Science Correspondent
NEWS > SCIENCE > ASTRONOMERS EYE CLIMATE CHANGE AS CHIEF CULPRIT BEHIND MASSIVE STORM ON SATURN
LINK IT! http://scrapetv.com/News/News%20Pages/Science/pages-4/Astronomers-eye-climate-change-as-chief-culprit-behind-massive-storm-on-Saturn-Scrape-TV-The-World-on-your-side.html |
TWEET IT! http://goo.gl/stuo1 |
BOOKMARK IT!  
|
|---|
Scrape Store
