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*Hi all.
http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/refpages/ … int=4]This article, previously posted in the http://www.newmars.com/forums/viewtopic … 42]Neptune Orbiter with Probes thread, states that Neptune possesses the Solar System's fastest winds:
Neptune has the fastest winds in the solar system, reaching speeds of 2,000 km/h (1,200 mph).
However, I've read that same claim regarding Saturn in many articles read and posted (by others and myself) in the http://www.newmars.com/forums/viewtopic … ni-Huygens ongoing thread.
They can't both have THE fastest (singular connotation) wind speed in the Solar System. At best, they're "tied."
?
--Cindy
We all know [i]those[/i] Venusians: Doing their hair in shock waves, smoking electrical coronas, wearing Van Allen belts and resting their tiny elbows on a Geiger counter...
--John Sladek (The New Apocrypha)
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Without any prompting, and simply from memory, if you'd asked me that question I would have said Neptune.
I seem to recall reading there was some amazement among scientists that the farther away from the Sun's heat the gas giants orbit, the faster their wind speeds seem to be. In fact, there was a small white cloud seen by Voyager in the Neptunian atmosphere and it was dubbed 'scooter', because it sped around the planet so fast.
But perhaps they've decided they were wrong in the light of new information(?). I really don't know the answer.
???
The word 'aerobics' came about when the gym instructors got together and said: If we're going to charge $10 an hour, we can't call it Jumping Up and Down. - Rita Rudner
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from science news online http://www.phschool.com/science/science … .html]full article
The winds in Saturn's upper atmosphere are some of the swiftest in the solar system, but recent findings suggest there's been a dramatic slowdown. Observations with the Hubble Space Telescope indicate that the band of wind circling Saturn's equator is now traveling 270 meters per second, a 40 percent drop from the supersonic speed it had just 22 years ago.
It does not look like much is really known about the winds of Saturn (and Neptune), the above article says Saturns winds should show a change in seven years, so perhaps it'll get that 40% back and Neptune won't even be close to matching it for speed.
Graeme
There was a young lady named Bright.
Whose speed was far faster than light;
She set out one day
in a relative way
And returned on the previous night.
--Arthur Buller--
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