Lightning on Saturn '1m times stronger' than on Earth

[Champ]

FINDING yourself in a thunderstorm on Saturn would be a truly shocking experience, scientists have discovered.

New data from the Cassini spacecraft shows that lightning on the ringed planet is a million times stronger than on Earth. But even terrestrial lightning can deliver between 100 million and one billion volts of electricity.

Scientists compared the strengths of Earth and Saturnian lightning by detecting its radio signals.

Cassini, the NASA probe currently orbiting Saturn, picked up radio signals from Earth lightning as far out as 89,200 kilometres. But as the spacecraft approached Saturn last July, it started detecting lightning signals at a point about 161 million kilometres from the planet.

Dr Don Gurnett, a space physicist from the University of Iowa, said: "This means that radio signals from Saturn’s lightning are on the order of one million times stronger than Earth’s lightning. That’s just astonishing to me."
http://news.scotsman.com/scitech.cfm?id=1448772004

[Rabrrrrrr]

1. That's some serious lightning!

Holy crow!