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Cassini Probes the Hexagon On Saturn

Posted by kdawson on from the monoliths dept.

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.

5 of 280 comments (clear)

  1. /. story about spinning water? by spun · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Wasn't there a story here within the last six months or so about spinning a bucket of water at the right speed and having it form geometric forms, including a hexagon?

    --
    - None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
    1. Re:/. story about spinning water? by greg_barton · · Score: 2, Insightful

      ...though how the hell we'll test it I have no idea.

      Which is why such speculation is somewhat useless.
    2. Re:/. story about spinning water? by radtea · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Which is why such speculation is somewhat useless.

      When Michael Faraday was asked "What good is electricity?" he replied, "What good is a baby?"

      --
      Blasphemy is a human right. Blasphemophobia kills.
  2. Better than the 'Face' on Mars by skywire · · Score: 2, Insightful

    WIth something like this to get excited about, who needs the "Face on Mars"?

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    Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.
  3. Just a sine wave wrapped around a circle? by Kaenneth · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I loaded the image into Gimp, centered it, and did a reverse polar-rectangular conversion. When I superimposed a sine wave, it was a fairly good match.

    It may only appear straight because it's the distance from the center of a curved surface, so that the curve of the wave, and the curve of the surface cancel out.