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Planetary science

Windy clues to Saturn's spin

Nature volume 460, pages 582–583 (2009)Cite this article

Saturn's rotation period has been a mystery. An estimate based on its meteorology comes with implications for our understanding of the planet's atmospheric jet streams and interior structure.

The rate at which a planet rotates is a fundamental property that informs our understanding of its formation, evolution, internal dynamics and meteorology. For planets with solid surfaces, the spin rate can simply be determined by tracking the motion of landforms as they rotate across the surface. But for the gas giants Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, which lack any solid surfaces, determining the rotation rates of their interiors is more difficult. Saturn has proved the most enigmatic, and in recent years our imprecise understanding of its rotation rate has become obvious1. On page 608 of this issue, Read and colleagues2 use clues from Saturn's dynamic meteorology to derive a new estimate for its rotation rate.

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Figure 1: Saturn's swinging winds.

N. SPENCER

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Adam P. Showman is in the Department of Planetary Sciences, Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona 85721, USA. showman@lpl.arizona.edu,

    Adam P. Showman

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  1. Adam P. Showman
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Showman, A. Windy clues to Saturn's spin. Nature 460, 582–583 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/460582a

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