Saturn's Cyclones | NASA Planetary Sciences

Learn about powerful cyclones seen at Saturn's north and south poles in this video from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. From a distance, Saturn appears to be serene; however, the Cassini spacecraft has provided detailed views that show the planet's active atmosphere. A giant cyclone (with a diameter about two Earths wide) was discovered at the south pole in 2006, and scientists were surprised to find a similar cyclone at the north pole in 2008. Cassini scientist Kevin Baines explains how the storms on Saturn are fueled by the planet's internal heat and are the largest and most powerful storms of this type in the solar system.
North Carolina Department of Public Instruction
Want to see another state’s standards? Change Station
Essential Standards (1)
Grades 9-12
NCES.EEn.1.1.1 See anchor statement
Explain the Earth’s motion through space, including precession, nutation, the barycenter, and its path about the galaxy.
All “NCES.EEn.1.1.1” resources
Nationwide
NGSS - Grade Level Disciplinary Core Ideas (1)
Grades 6-8
MS-ESS1.B.1 See anchor statement
The solar system consists of the sun and a collection of objects, including planets, their moons, and asteroids that are held in orbit around the sun by its gravitational pull on them.
All “MS-ESS1.B.1” resources
Benchmarks for Science Literacy (1)
Grades 9-12
4A/H3 See anchor statement
By the end of the twelfth grade students should know that: Increasingly sophisticated technology is used to learn about the universe. Visual, radio, and X-ray telescopes collect information from across the entire spectrum of electromagnetic waves; computers handle data and complicated computations to interpret them; space probes send back data and materials from remote parts of the solar system; and accelerators give subatomic particles energies that simulate conditions in the stars and in the early history of the universe before stars formed.