Slashdot Mirror
Cassini Probes the Hexagon On Saturn
Riding with Robots sends us to a NASA page with photos of a little-understood hexagonal shape surrounding Saturn's north pole. "This is a very strange feature, lying in a precise geometric fashion with six nearly equally straight sides," said Kevin Baines, member of Cassini's visual and infrared mapping spectrometer team. "We've never seen anything like this on any other planet." This structure was discovered by the Voyager probes over 20 years ago (here's an 18-year-old note on the mystery). The fact that it's still in place means it is stable and long-lived. Scientists have no idea what causes the hexagon. It's nearly big enough to fit four earths inside — comfortably larger than Jupiter's Great Red Spot. The article has an animation of clouds moving within the hexagon captured in infrared light.
The Saturn North Pole? Isn't that where Saturn Clause lives? Maybe he has something to do with it.
There is no "I disagree" mod for a reason. Flamebait, Troll, and Overrated are not substitutes.
space bees
Design for Use, not Construction!
With Fife Symington coming forward and saying that the Phoenix Lights from 1997 were actually an "other worldly craft" - how much longer can we believe ourselves to be alone in the universe?
It's obvious to me, as a trained ufologist, that this is not a natural phenomenon. This hexagonal structure was BUILT by intelligent life.
Perhaps the universe is just poorly anti-aliased
The original generic sig.
When God created Saturn, he used a low polygon count to speed up the rendering process.
Last time I checked, all hexagons had six sides...
I agree, the only logical conclusion is that Saturn has been colonized by giant space bees who have made it their honey comb hive.
Saskboy's blog is good. 9 out of 10 dentists agree.
Superman had to abandon his Earth-based Fortress of Solitude, which was starting to melt due to global warming, not to mention all the annoying scientific expeditions coming by to drill for ice cores. He figured he'd try Saturn's north pole for a change. The commute's a bit longer, but there's less traffic.
Saturn is the sixth planet out.
A hexagon has six sides.
There is a second hexagon inside the first. Another six sides.
6-6-6
Hmmm, that number kind of has a ring to it. And so does Saturn.
Coincidence?
... it's a nut holding the rings in place. You can even see the bolt.
Do you have *any* idea how hard it is to find a parking space for that thing where some yob's not going to key it or deflate the tires or poke at it with a spectrograph? :(
I should have got the next model down, then I could have pretended it was just another moon, but nooooooo, I had to get the hexagonal UltraSUV because it was "different" and had more legroom.
Hm, wonder if that guy who owns Mimas would do a swap. His camo paint job looks *so* much less convincing after those stupid films.
Well, everybody knows that: honeycomb big, yeah, yeah, yeah. If only these scientists had just taken the time to watch Saturday morning cartoons, or Futurama.
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
"almost looks like a human eye."
Looks more like Saturn is giving us a Goatse, spreading wide for the camera.
I am defenseless. Use your button. Mod me down with all of your hatred.
Both words, Jupiter and Jewish start from 'J' and hexagon can be used to depict the star of David. The mystery is solved and Jupiter should really be renamed into Jewpiter. Oh, and it's closed on Saturdays. The official anthem is 7:40
You can't handle the truth.
Or, its warning sign placed there by the Vogon Constructor Fleet
AT field detected on Saturn's surface ! Code Orange ! Launch all EVA units, and someone go fetch me the Longinus Spear !
The Wise adapts himself to the world. The Fool adapts the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the Fool.