Bizarre Hexagon Spotted on Saturn

Space.com ^ | 3/27/07

[anymouse]

One of the most bizarre weather patterns known has been photographed at Saturn, where astronomers have spotted a huge, six-sided feature circling the north pole.

Rather than the normally sinuous cloud structures seen on all planets that have atmospheres, this thing is a hexagon.

The honeycomb-like feature has been seen before. NASA's Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft imaged it more than two decades ago. Now, having spotted it with the Cassini spacecraft, scientists conclude it is a long-lasting oddity.

"This is a very strange feature, lying in a precise geometric fashion with six nearly equally straight sides," said Kevin Baines, atmospheric expert and member of Cassini's visual and infrared mapping spectrometer team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "We've never seen anything like this on any other planet. Indeed, Saturn's thick atmosphere, where circularly-shaped waves and convective cells dominate, is perhaps the last place you'd expect to see such a six-sided geometric figure, yet there it is."

The hexagon is nearly 15,000 miles (25,000 kilometers) across. Nearly four Earths could fit inside it. The thermal imagery shows the hexagon extends about 60 miles (100 kilometers) down into the clouds.

At Saturn's south pole, Cassini recently spotted a freaky human eye-like feature that resembles a hurricane.

"It's amazing to see such striking differences on opposite ends of Saturn's poles," said Bob Brown, team leader of the Cassini visual and infrared mapping spectrometer at the University of Arizona. "At the south pole we have what appears to be a hurricane with a giant eye, and at the north pole of Saturn we have this geometric feature, which is completely different."

The hexagon appears to have remained fixed with Saturn's rotation rate and axis since first glimpsed by Voyager 26 years ago. The actual rotation rate of Saturn is still uncertain, which means nobody knows exactly how long the planet's day is.

"Once we understand its dynamical nature, this long-lived, deep-seated polar hexagon may give us a clue to the true rotation rate of the deep atmosphere and perhaps the interior," Baines said.

[ffusco]

It's made of stars!

[ffusco]

a six sided crystal- sure. A six sided dust cloud???

[ravingnutter]

Can't be pi, pi are round ; )

[azhenfud]

Some pi r squared.

[RightWhale]

It is an ordinary jetstream formation.

[Atlas Sneezed]

6 nearly equal sides is hard to get naturally, unless this is a giant fractal.

---

You kidding? Hexagons are a very natural structure. Honeycombs, basalt columns, bubble rafts. Not to mention lots of crystalline structures. Toss a bunch of marbles in a shoebox, and they will pack into a hexagonal array.

The photo looks to me like there are circulating atmospheric cells surrounding the hex pattern, which is distorted by the action of the cells from circular to hexagonal. Those cells create fluid motion that "sucks" the hex boundary outward at its corners, apparently.

[ichabod1]

eerie.

[HAL9000]

[Las Vegas Dave]

Pinging the list as a FYI.

[Las Vegas Dave]

FYI!

[CindyDawg]

Who is the dude laying there? The one with the sun glasses.

[RightWhale]

The cells are driven by temperature delta and Coriolis force.

[EarthBound]

Please see post 70. I posted before I actually thought hard on it. I'll say ten Hail Gores and buy 15 carbon offsets.

[dennisw]

"6 nearly equal sides is hard to get naturally"

Cells in a beehive

[knews_hound]

Well I learned one thing.

My hearing above 15KHZ isn't what it used to be.

Fascinating Video, thanks for sharing.

Cheers,

knewshound

http://www.knewshound.blogspot.com/

[albee]

Looks like a six-sided boob to me!

[Redcloak]

Ahmadinejad will, not doubt, suspect a Zionist conspiracy.

[Jet Jaguar]

That is cool!

[kalee]

ping

[COBOL2Java]

It's a cook book.
It's a cook book.

"It depends on what the meaning of "cook" and "book" is. You could ask my cousin Bill."