The mysterious spokes in Saturn’s rings may be created by massive thunderstorms in the planet’s atmosphere. If the theory is right, these faint features are the signature of awesome events: lightning strokes ten thousand times more energetic than those on Earth, releasing beams of electrons that surge up from Saturn’s surface to whack into the rings and blast out jets of electrically charged dust. The idea, proposed by Geraint Jones of the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in Katlenburg-Lindau, Germany, and his colleagues remains speculative. No one has ever seen storm-induced electron beams on Saturn. But the researchers say that the theory would explain some puzzling features of the spokes, and that it fits with what is known about the effects of thunderstorms on Earth. The spokes of Saturn’s rings were first discovered by the Voyager I and II spacecraft when they passed close to the gas giant planet in 1980 and 1981.
Source : Jones G. H., et al. Geophys. Res. Lett., 33 . L21202 (2006)