NASA's Cassini spacecraft captured what the agency calls a "behemoth" hurricane on Saturn that has been churning for years. With a 1,250-mile-wide eye, the hurricane is 20 times larger than those we see on Earth.
This first color image, acquired on Nov. 27, 2012, shows the hurricane at Saturn's north pole, which was previously hidden when Cassini arrived in 2004 during the planet's winter. Scientists combined images with red, green and blue spectral filters to create a view that looks natural to the human eye. Cassini was about 261,000 miles away from the storm.
NASA also released a "false color" view of the same spot. The images filtered at 728 nanometers are projected as green, and images filtered at 752 nanometers are projected as red.
For the grand finale, a zoomed shot of the eye -- image scale is 1 mile per pixel -- reveals deep red swirling clouds traveling at 330 miles per hour.
BONUS: Astronaut Snaps Amazing Photos From the Space Station
[nggallery id=10723]