[Quark (Trevor)]

Originally Posted by RobF

Wow - looks like the Flea is humming very nicely, even for initial pics like these

Thanks Rob, the Flea certainly has been extremely active. Actually, due to the number of Fleas in my back yard this last week, " I would think the highest concentration in Australia" we might need some Flea repellent. The first night that Bird was here we did have a large amount of Flea repellent turn up, in the form of cloud

Originally Posted by edwardsdj

Awesome images of Saturn!

How could there be so many storms in a line except for an impact?

Thanks for your comment.
These storms on Saturn occur in a very special region that has been dubbed "Storm Alley" by the Cassini scientists. At this latitude, about 38 degrees South, the wind speeds have dropped off, from the equator, enough for large scale storms to survive. Since the arrival at Saturn in 2004 of the Cassini space craft, one of the instruments onboard,(the RPWS Radio & Plasma Wave Science instrument) has recorded outbursts of SED's (Saturn Electrostatic Discharge) or lightning.

At Saturn there are 3 distinct cloud layers in the atmosphere. An upper layer of Ammonia ice crystal clouds, an intermediate layer of Ammoniumhydrosulphide ice crystals and a lower layer of water ice crystals.

From time to time a poorly understood heat source deep within the planet causes material from the water ice crystal cloud layer into rapid vertical motion. A column of material punches upward, this rapid vertical motion cause lightning which is detected by the RPWS instrument on Cassini. This column of material punches through the upper ammonia ice cloud layer and mushrooms out and we see this as the white spots that we image.

Hope this helps you to understand what we are seeing and that these spots have nothing to do with impacts.

Originally Posted by michaellxv

Excellent detail Trevor. Is that a moon I see moving in from the west in the animation?

Thanks very much Michaell, yes, Rhea is above the rings to the west and Tethys is further to the west and in line with the rings but is very difficult to see.