NASA spacecraft captures powerful flashes

(Source: Dailymail)

An incredible view of daytime lightning on Saturn during one of the biggest storms the ringed planet has ever seen has been captured by a NASA spacecraft.

The new images unveiled by NASA - which it said came as a big surprise - came after its Cassini orbiter captured the lightning storm while orbiting the planet.
 


The bright blue spots on the picture below of the enormous storm, which broke out on the planet last year, shows the powerful lightning.

Speaking to Fox News.com, Ulyana Dyudina, from the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, admitted they did not expect these findings: 'We didn't think we'd see lighting on Saturn's day side —only its night side.
 


 

'The fact that Cassini was able to detect the lightning means that it was very intense.'

The spacecraft was observing a giant storm on the planet in March last year when it spotted the lightning.

Researchers were able to locate the lightning after a blue filter on the spacecraft's main camera recorded the flashes.
 


 


The blue tint was then exaggerated by scientists who could pin down the size and location of the lightning strikes.

The researchers found that the lightning strike which the Cassini orbiter recorded was incredibly powerful.

The energy from the visible flashes of lightning could have spiked about 3 billion watts over a second - equal to some of the strongest and most powerful lightning flashes recorded on Earth.

Scientists said the lightning was recorded across an area 100 miles wide. The spacecraft spotted a total of eight lightning flashes.
 


The storm which resulted in the powerful lightning strike is the longest-lived storm ever recorded on the planet, beginning in December 2010 and lasting for an incredible 200 days. It ended in late June last year.

At its peak, it wrapped completely around the planet.

The Cassini spacecraft was launched by NASA in 1997 and since 2006 has been orbiting Saturn. Its latest mission is expected to last until 2017.

Cassini project scientist Linda Spilker said: 'Saturn's atmosphere has been changing over the eight years Cassini has been at Saturn, and we can't wait to see what happens next.

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