"The solar wind streams off of the Sun in all directions at speeds of about 400 km/s (about 1 million miles per hour). The solar wind is not uniform. Although it is always directed away from the Sun, it changes speed and carries with it magnetic clouds, interacting regions where high speed wind catches up with slow speed wind, and composition variations. The solar wind speed is high (800 km/s) over coronal holes and low (300 km/s) over streamers. These high and low speed streams interact with each other and alternately pass by the Earth as the Sun rotates. These wind speed variations buffet the Earth's magnetic field and can produce storms in the Earth's magnetosphere." NASA Marshall Space Flight Center
Atmospheric circulation 360 km/h in same direction as planet rotation but 60 times faster than planet, clockwise looking down on north pole; surface temp. 864 deg. F 462 deg. C.
"The probe vehicle of AKATSUKI will enter an elliptical orbit, 300 to 80,000 km away from Venus’s surface. This wide variation in distance will enable comprehensive observations of the planet’s meteorological phenomena and of its surface, as well as observations of the atmospheric particles escaping from Venus into space. It will also be possible to take close-up photos of Venus, and to observe the storm winds that blow on the Venusian surface, at speeds that reach 100 m a second - 60 times the speed at which Venus rotates. This phenomenon remains the biggest mystery of Venus, as it cannot be explained meteorologically."
Gaia
Hurricane Katrina landfall imaged from satellite, winds gusting to 175 mph Cat. 5 (top)
Sound of Aurora Borealis (solar wind in earth's magnetosphere, from NPR) (bottom)
Like storm chasers on Earth, a NASA spacecraft spends time each day pursuing intense weather on Mars. Speeding along in orbit, it takes images of dust storms. Often, the storms are spiral like giant tornadoes on Earth. Sometimes they form huge fronts of churning dust like the "black blizzards" of the 1930s. Water ice condenses onto the dust particles to form wispy, white clouds.These images show whirlwinds on top of volcanoes and a dust front rising from a network of canyons. Thin veils of icy clouds dissipate into the atmosphere above the dust plumes. The orbiter has discovered that smaller storms on Mars can feed into larger storms."Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
"The astronomers/meteorologists found the wind speeds and directions varied as the seasons changed. Easterly winds of approximately 15-20 kilometers per hour prevailed during the Martian mid-summer, but when autumn approached, the winds increased and switched to come predominantly from the West. While these winds appeared to be dominated by turbulence, the highest wind speeds recorded of up to nearly 60 kilometers per hour coincided with the passing of weather systems, when also the number of dust devils increased by an order of magnitude.
Mars is typically a rather windy place and learning more about the planet’s climatic conditions will contribute to the understanding of the Martian water cycle and the identification of areas on the red planet that could sustain life." Phoenix's Telltale Tells All About Winds and Weather on Mars
Jet streams: jet stream at lat. 55N, max. wind speed 170 m/s [Sanchez-Lavega, A.; Orton, G.S.; Hueso, S. et al. (2008). "Depth of the strong Jovian jet from a planetary scale disturbance driven by storms". Nature 451: 437–440.]
Red Spot anticyclone (counterclockwise rotation) 2-3 earths wide, not less than 300-344 years old, 340 mph; wind speeds at latitudinal magins 100-120 m/s (~432 km/h)
Little Red Spot (Oval BA) (developing since 1930s) one earth wide, 384 mph winds increasing
Great Dragon Storm, vortices, and southern polar storms, winds around 350 mph
Some winds at 1,100 mph: "Those clouds are moving at different speeds—of around 1,100 miles per hour! Some blow eastward, some blow westward."NASA Spaceplace for Kids
The windiest planet in the solar system
325 m/s "Great Dark Spot" 725 mph (pt 2)
Triton eruptive gas plumes blown at 1 m/s (pt 4)
"Jupiter is not even the worst place for wind. The giant planets don't have continents or oceans to interfere with the flow of gas in the atmosphere. One result is tremendous gusts that exceed 900 miles per hour (400 meters per second) on Saturn and Neptune."The Worst Weather in the Solar System
"Neptune’s winds are the fastest in the solar system, reaching 1,600 miles per hour! Neptune has been known to have giant, spinning storms that could swallow the whole Earth."NASA Spaceplace for Kids
"On other gas giants, the lack of a surface allows the wind to reach enormous speeds: gusts of up to 600 metres per second (about 2,100 kilometres per hour (1,300 mph)) have been measured on the planet Neptune."
Dwarf planet ("134-430"), just another Kuiper Belt bum;
150 lbs on earth = 12 lbs on Pluto, -375 deg. F, =225 deg. C (45 deg. above absolute zero K);
thin atmosphere of frozen nitrogen, methane, and carbon dioxide that fumes in the Plutonian "summer".
Eris -- dwarf "planetoid" larger than Pluto -- exhibits summer winds from nitrogen - methane ice "fuming" towards colder north pole under solar warming near peihelion.
"The strongest planetary winds discovered so far are on the extrasolar planet HD 189733b, which is thought to have easterly winds moving at more than 9,600 kilometres per hour (6,000 mph)." Nature 447, 183-186 (10 May 2007)
"A separate team trained the SST on HD 189733 b for 33 hours of its 2.2-day orbital period, giving them a map of its surface heat. In a second Nature paper they report that its day- and night-side temperatures were relatively similar—1,200 and 970 kelvins (about 1,700 and 1,285 degrees F), respectively—and that the day side's hottest spot did not face the star dead-on but was offset by 30 degrees longitude [see image above].
Both features are signs of extreme wind speeds of perhaps 5,000 to 6,000 miles per hour, says astronomer Heather Knutson, a graduate student at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. "It tells us that winds are kind of shifting things around in the atmosphere," she says." Sci. Am.
"This planet has powerful jet streams. While Earth's jet stream blows at around 200 miles per hour, the jet stream on HD 189733b may blow as fast as 6,000 miles per hour, according to computer models," said co-author David Charbonneau (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics). The distant planet's strong, hot winds may also help to keep the planet's night side warm. Without winds, the side facing the star would broil while the opposite side would freeze. However, the astronomers measured a maximum temperature difference of about 500 degrees F. The coldest regions on the night side remain a balmy 1200 degrees F. "Every night is hot on this world," stated Knutson."" Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (9 May 2007)
Super Novae to Black Holes
Mysteries of Deep Space: Black Holes
Super novae exploding stars, neutron stars, pulsars, 1054 Crab Nebulae explosion, Scorpius jets
Milky Way: 100,000-200,000 LY across 1,000 LY thin, bulge 1,200 LY thick, 200-400 billion stars (Andromeda galaxy has 4-5 times more!), rotational / spiral velocity 254 m/s, or 567 miles/sec., or 2 million mph, our Sun about 26,000 LY out from center near the inner rim of the Orion Arm.
Black hole at the center of the Milky Way, anchoring 30 million stars in the bulge disk of the galaxy, 4 million times more massive than our sun, whereas other galactic black holes can be as big as several billion times the sun's mass (250 times larger than our little puppy). M87's Monster is 1,600 times more massive. Stars swept along in its wake at the core of the Milky Way speed around at 3 million mph -- spiraling inward down the drain!
3D map of the Milky Way (Java)
(the Orion Arm is between the Persus Arm and the Saggitarius Arm -- double click to enter)
Centaurus A
Massive black hole in Galaxy Centaurus A (NGC 5128) -- 11 million LY distant -- blasts out high-energy jet that annihilates a nearby galaxy
"Previous observations done with ISAAC on the VLT (ESO 04/01) have revealed that a supermassive black hole lurks inside Centaurus A. Its mass is about 200 million times the mass of our Sun, or 50 times more massive than the one that lies at the centre of our Milky Way." -- European Southern Observatory
Massive black hole in galaxy M87 (NGC 4486) 55-60 million light years (18 MPc) away in the Virgo cluster of galaxies flares up 90 times brighter as plasma jet strikes HST-1 interstellar gas located 214 light years out from the galactic core -- now that's a BLOW! "Golf course is temporarily closed."
The black hole inside M87 is thought to be 6.4 billion times more massive than our sun, and the Milky Way black hole is tiny in comparison, only 1,600th the size of the M87 MONSTER!
Celtic instrumental
by Maidens IV
Tabitha Justice, Zephyr & Adaiah (bay)
Waves of the Wind Maidens IV CD, Celtic Fire
the winds in the wire made a tattle-tale sound,
and a wave broke over the railing,
and every man knew as the Captain did too,
it was the witch of November come stealing
tumbleweed keeps rolling,
he can't find no place to rest,
the desert wind blows tumbleweed,
the spirit of the west
easy wind blowin cross the bayou today,
there's a whole lot of women
out on the streets in red today,
the river keep a-talkin but you never hear'd a word it say
