And the world's search for new sources of fuel continues. This time around, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) turned its sights to a hurricane.

It sounds unlikely but a new research suggests that the "calm" eye of any hurricane is in fact packed with energy that keeps the weather powerhouse running.

"The spinning flow of air parcels - or vortices - in the eye can carry very warm, moist eye air into the eyewall that acts as a turbocharger for the hurricane heat engine," says Scott Braun, research meteorologist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.

Researchers used computer simulations and observations of 1998's Hurricane Bonnie in southern North Carolina. U.S. Naval Postgraduate School Professor of Meteorology Michael Montgomery, likewise, said that the interaction between the moisture-enriched air parcels, the main eyewall, and the lower eyewall cloud is similar to "increasing the octane level in auto fuel." He added,

This discovery may help explain why strong storms can remain intense for several hours or longer after encountering conditions that usually bring weakening. Ongoing research will add to our understanding of the dynamics associated with storm intensity so that we can pinpoint the variables and processes that must be represented in numerical models to improve intensity forecasts.