Original Post from NASA

“Explanation: Why would clouds form a hexagon on Saturn? Nobody is sure. Originally discovered during the Voyager flybys of Saturn in the 1980s, nobody has ever seen anything like it anywhere else in the Solar System. Acquiring its first sunlit views of far northern Saturn in late 2012, the Cassini spacecraft’s wide-angle camera recorded this stunning, false-color image of the ringed planet’s north pole. The composite of near-infrared image data results in red hues for low clouds and green for high ones, giving the Saturnian cloudscape a vivid appearance. This and similar images show the stability of the hexagon even 20+ years after Voyager. Movies of Saturn’s North Pole show the cloud structure maintaining its hexagonal structure while rotating. Unlike individual clouds appearing like a hexagon on Earth, the Saturn cloud pattern appears to have six well defined sides of nearly equal length. Four Earths could fit inside the hexagon. Beyond the cloud tops at the upper right, arcs of the planet’s eye-catching rings are tinted bright blue.”

  • peanuts4life@beehaw.orgEnglish
    5·
    1 year ago

    From Wikipedia:

    A persisting hexagonal wave pattern around the north polar vortex in the atmosphere at about 78°N was first noted in the Voyager images.[67][68][69] The sides of the hexagon are each about 14,500 km (9,000 mi) long, which is longer than the diameter of the Earth.[70] The entire structure rotates with a period of 10h 39m 24s (the same period as that of the planet’s radio emissions) which is assumed to be equal to the period of rotation of Saturn’s interior.[71] The hexagonal feature does not shift in longitude like the other clouds in the visible atmosphere.[72] The pattern’s origin is a matter of much speculation. Most scientists think it is a standing wave pattern in the atmosphere. Polygonal shapes have been replicated in the laboratory through differential rotation of fluids.[73][74]

    • Pigeon@beehaw.orgEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      It’s kinda wd to me that 10h 39m would be the period of Saturn’s interior rotation. It’s so huge compared to earth, yet spinning through a rull rotation in less than half the time? Is this something that just happens with gas giants, or?

  • Pigeon@beehaw.orgEnglish
    2·
    1 year ago

    Fans of this hexagon may enjoy the video game Observation, which did a great job turning it into a fun scifi-horror centerpiece. :) it’s not a perfect game - particularly, it has a tendency to clutter the screen with things that may or may not be clickable - but it’s really good nonetheless if you luke space horror.

    Anyway this hexagon is dope and sounds fake when you tell people about it.