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.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

It's the bolt that holds the entire planet together.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

I did not know that the Rovian weather machine had interplanetary powers. Isn't technology wonderful?!?

[IllumiNaughtyByNature]

See a similarity?

[meyer]

This is about saturn, not uranus. ;-)

[Grizzled Bear]

Thailand?

[Kevmo]

Thanks for posting that. Fascinating hexagon occurring in nature.

[null and void]

SHAME!

[null and void]

Someone has to do it.

Whats a henway?

[null and void]

Could this Hexagonal structure be a manifestation Benzene?

I don't know if it's been-seen on Saturn...

[SamAdams76]

Apparently the Pentagon is "looking into this."

[John 6.66=Mark of the Beast?]

The bee hive hexagon has an intelligent builder behind it. Is there any other hexagons that occur without a intelligent builder behind it?

[null and void]

Devil's postpile

[A knight without armor]

LOL! You crack me up! I needed that tonight! I really, really did. I'm such a masochist I clicked on this article assuming there would be a picture of Helen Thomas.

[null and void]

Giant's causeway:

[Suzy Quzy]

What;s a HENWAY??? About 6 poubds!!! BaDUM.

[null and void]

Took you long enough. Did we wake you?

[Suzy Quzy]

Look at this!!

[Suzy Quzy]

I was cooking dinner for guests!!!

[null and void]

Did you make enough for all of us? I think not!

[Shadowstrike]

It's a giant ad for a famous local eating establishment.

Saturns' version of The Brown Derby. :)