The Cassini spacecraft has been in orbit around Saturn since 2004 and during its mission, has watched nine different lightning storms rage on the planet. But this latest one is the longest lasting and most powerful storm yet: it has been going on since mid-January 2009 with no end in sight. It broke the storm duration record of 7.5 months set by another thunderstorm observed by Cassin between November 2007 and July 2008. Lightning discharges in Saturn's atmosphere emit very powerful radio waves which are about 10,000 times stronger than their terrestrial counterparts and the huge thunderstorms in Saturn's atmosphere have diameters of about 3,000 km.
Full article by Nancy Atkinson on Universe Today
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