On Earth, and on Jupiter as well, the magnetic poles are located at the northern and southern extremes of both planets. For us Earthlings, that fact gives us the shimmering colored curtains of the aurora borealis, the northern lights -- and the southern lights, too, for those living in the far Southern Hemisphere. But the two instruments aboard Cassini that are measuring the size, the strength and the shape of Saturn's magnetic field have confirmed that the field is aligned with Saturn's axis of rotation. Its poles are located on either side of the planet's equator, instead of at the northern and southern extremes.
Wild.
2 posted on 06/29/2004 10:31:10 PM PDT by martin_fierro
(Knees in the breeze)