Saturn's Massive Cyclones Born from Thunderstorms

For the last decade, astronomers have struggled to figure out what was causing the mysterious massive cyclones seen on Saturn. Now, new research has revealed that multiple small thunderstorms are to blame.

These cyclones, first observed in 2008 by NASA's Cassini spacecraft, are each as wide as the Earth and whip up roughly 300 mph winds.

While cyclones on Earth are fueled by the heat and moisture of the oceans, no such bodies of water exist on Saturn.

"There's no surface at all - it just gets denser as you get deeper," Morgan O'Neill from MIT, the study's lead author, said in a statement. "If you lack choppy waters or a frictional surface that allows wind to converge, which is how hurricanes form on Earth, how can you possibly get something that looks similar on a gas giant?"

According to new findings published in the journal Nature Geoscience, over time, small, short-lived thunderstorms across the planet may build up angular momentum, or spin, within the atmosphere - ultimately stirring up a massive polar vortex, or cyclone, that can last for years.

To arrive at this conclusion, a team of scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) developed a model of Saturn's atmosphere and simulated the long-term effect of multiple small thunderstorms forming across the planet.

Despite the fact that each thunderstorm is relatively small, collectively, they pull so much air towards the planet's poles that it generates enough energy to cause a massive, long-lasting cyclone.