Sex in Space

“Donald Savage
Headquarters, Washington April 8, 2004
(Phone: 202/358-1727)

Carolina Martinez
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
(Phone: 818/354-9382)

Heidi Finn
Cassini Imaging Central Laboratory, Boulder, Colo.
(Phone: 720/974-5859)

RELEASE: 04-119


TWO STORMS CAUGHT IN THE ACT ON SATURN


Three months before Saturn arrival, the Cassini spacecraft caught two storms in the act of merging into one larger storm. This is only the second time this phenomenon has been observed on the ringed planet.

"Merging is one of the distinct features of storms in the
giant planet atmospheres," said Dr. Andrew Ingersoll, member
of the Cassini imaging team and professor of planetary
science at the California Institute of Technology in
Pasadena, Calif.

"On Earth, storms last for a week or so and usually fade away
when they enter the mature phase and can no longer extract
energy from their surroundings. On Saturn and the other giant
planets, storms last for months, years, or even centuries.
Instead of simply fading away, many storms on the giant
planets end their lives by merging. How they form, however,
is still uncertain," Ingersoll said.

With diameters close to 1,000 kilometers (621 miles), both
storms were seen moving west, relative to the rotation of
Saturn's interior, for about a month before they merged on
March 19-20, 2004.

The northern storm moved about twice as fast as the southern
storm, 11 meters versus 6 meters per second (25 vs. 13 mph)
respectively. They approached each other like two cars on a
highway and spun around each other in a counterclockwise
direction as they merged. This is the opposite of how
hurricanes spin in the southern hemisphere on Earth.

Just after the merger, on March 20, the new storm was
elongated in the north-south direction, with bright clouds on
either end. Two days later the storm settled into a more
circular shape and the bright clouds were spread around the
circumference to form a halo. Whether the bright clouds are
particles of a different composition or simply at a different
altitude is uncertain.

Although these storms moved slowly west, others at Saturn's
equator move east at speeds up to 450 meters per second
(1,000 miles per hour). That is about 10 times the speed of
Earth's jet streams and three times greater than the
equatorial winds on Jupiter.

"Saturn is the windiest planet in the solar system,"
Ingersoll said. "And that's a huge mystery. We'll be getting
closer to the planet all the way through June, so maybe we'll
find out," he said.

Images from the Voyager spacecraft flybys of Saturn in August
1981 show storms partially merging. But to see them with
Cassini, this far out from Saturn, is a mouthwatering
surprise to scientists, because they will get even closer
during the spacecraft's four-year Saturn tour. "I'm
optimistic because these images are already so good. The best
is yet to come," Ingersoll said.

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA,
the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The
Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), a division of the California
Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Cassini-
Huygens mission for NASA's Office of Space Science,
Washington. The Cassini orbiter, including the two cameras
onboard the spacecraft, was designed, developed and assembled
at JPL. The imaging team is based at the Space Science
Institute, Boulder, Colo.

A series of Cassini images documenting this event is
available on the Internet at:

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov

http://ciclops.org

-end-”

“wow.......I still remember Neil Armstrongs little walk....doesn't even compare to what we are learning about our solar system now........
and now I feel so small!!!!”

“I've looked at clouds from both sides, now.”

“I wanted to sign up for sex in space. dang!!

lol

I was just reading National Geographic about tornado chasing last night. One guy placed some data thing in the path of the tornado -- which passed over it a mere 80 seconds later. HOLY SHEEYAT!!!

They had a photo which is figured to be the closest one to a tornado.

Yes, the machine ended up getting blown away some distance and wrecked. But it got a few shots off before that happened.”

“And it's name was 'Toto' right?

LOL”

“Actually..... it's name was TINMAN.

Seriously.”

“Like the NextGen episode?


uh-oh. geek alert.”

“I hardly think someone who faces a tornado to put something called "Tinman" in its path is a geek. Stupid maybe, but not a geek. And I'm not a geek, so I don't know the "Next Gen" reference.

Here's the article

And here's a cool presentation

Plus there's a lot more on the website.”

“Oh.... He's probably a geek, too, LOL”

“The title of the post reminds me of the line towards the end of a Roger Moore-as-James Bond movie, where Bond and the girl are doing the wild thing in the space capsule as the NASA and British officials check in to congratulate Bond on saving the world as we know it. M (or was it Q?), deflecting attention of the other officials at the briefing, says that Bond was about to attempt re-entry.

Uh, it was funnier in the movie.”

“http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2000/feb/24/spaceexploration.internationalnews1

cool”

“LOL....”

“That has got to be the most expensive porn ever filmed.”

“i wanna know what the 4 possible positions are (not that ill ever get a chance to do it)”

“Every dog has his day, Crash.”

“But I am thinking Mustache rides would still be a Go.”

“crash - for you they have "leftie", "rightie", "both hands", and "air-lock".”

“NASA is not the agency to be looking into this. Do those nerds ever have sex? They need to hire consultants from the sex toy industry. I guarantee you that they would come up with some nifty gadgets that would allow for more than 4 positions.”

“You might have luck with this chick, Crash:


last edited: 12/03/07 6:55:40 AM”

“Isn't that a boy?”

“Who knows!”

“"Was it good for you?"”

“The kid's Name is Pat (LOL)”

“Sex in Space?

Yes, please.”

“Sex in space. Kinkyyyyyyy!”

“sex in office space.

preferably mine.”