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Saturn's Strange Hexagon Recreated In the Lab

Posted by timothy on from the reproducing-the-big-wet-spot dept.

cremeglace writes "Saturn boasts one of the solar system's most geometrical features: a giant hexagon encircling its north pole. Though not as famous as Jupiter's Great Red Spot, Saturn's Hexagon is equally mysterious. Now researchers have recreated this formation in the lab using little more than water and a spinning table—an important first step, experts say, in finally deciphering this cosmic mystery. More details, including a cool demo video, at ScienceNOW."

33 of 103 comments (clear)

  1. But, what I want to know... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    When will they solve the mystery of the inflamed ring around Uranus?

    1. Re:But, what I want to know... by Chris+Burke · · Score: 3, Funny

      That's what the TUCKS probe is supposed to find out!

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  2. Geometrical by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    A hexagon? The summary is right, that is the most geometrical feature I've ever seen in the solar system. At least twice as geometrical as all those spheroids and ellipses.

    1. Re:Geometrical by JoshuaZ · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Spheroids, ellipses and circles arise fairly naturally from well-understood laws. Even if the laws were a bit different we'd still see them a fair bit. For example, if gravity was inverse linear planets would still organize into spheres. Orbits wouldn't be ellipses but they aren't really ellipses anyways, just ellipses to a first approximation (gravity from other planets distorts the orbits a measurable amount. This was actually used to predict the existence of Neptune based on the failure for Uranus to in as nice an ellipse). But hexagons are very rare in nature. In that sense they are a nice geometric object that we generally associate either with humans or with evolved self-organizing processes (such as bees which use hexagons because they are an efficient tiling pattern). But hexagons out of simple processes like this is just weird. In that sense this is more akin to geometrical objects like squares and octagons that you just don't see in nature. The point being made by using that term should have been clear.

    2. Re:Geometrical by AP31R0N · · Score: 4, Informative

      Bubbles will tessalate into hexagons with the right pressure. i guess it's more stable (closer to circles/spheres) than other shapes.

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    3. Re:Geometrical by Lifyre · · Score: 2, Informative

      According TFA they have made triangles and squares too, pretty much any shape you want by varying the speed. The fast the differential the fewer sides.

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    4. Re:Geometrical by adisakp · · Score: 2, Insightful

      But hexagons are very rare in nature.

      Yeah, HoneyComb, SnowFlakes, Hexagonnaly symmetric Invertebrates (i.e. 6 Legged SeaStars), and Six-Sided Crystals (Rubies, sapphires, emeralds, etc) are all very rare in nature.

    5. Re:Geometrical by jonadab · · Score: 3, Informative

      Hexagonal crystals are also not unusual, for similar reasons.

      What would be weird would be a naturally occurring repeating pattern of different shapes, e.g., a soccerball-like repeating mixture of pentagons and hexagons, or a pattern of octagons that each adjoin another octagon on the north, south, east, and west edges, with squares (angled at 45 degrees) filling the gaps between the ne, sw, se, and nw edges, and bonus points if adjoining octagons are different colors while the ones across squares from eachother are the same color. Show me THAT occurring naturally, and I'll stand there with my jaw hanging open staring at it in wonderment.

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    6. Re:Geometrical by telomerewhythere · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Buckyballs
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fullerene

    7. Re:Geometrical by amicusNYCL · · Score: 3, Funny

      They are as rare as proper capitalization.

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    8. Re:Geometrical by gardyloo · · Score: 2, Informative

      Fullerenes are ridiculously common in soot. Besides, you don't think "manmade" means going in and arranging atoms one-by-one in arrangements that aren't stable, do you? If the atoms are in a stable arrangement, it's because it minimizes the free energy of the system, and I guarantee that nature has figured out a way to get there first.

  3. Re:Yawn by Marxist+Hacker+42 · · Score: 5, Informative

    RTFA- the vortex previously used to explain this effect was gone when Cassini came by- but the hexagon was still there. This is a laboratory experiment, completely reproducible, that explains the effect in a new way.

    --
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  4. Similar article from some years ago... by comm2k · · Score: 3, Interesting

    See http://www.nature.com/news/2006/060515/full/news060515-17.html

    1. Re:Similar article from some years ago... by chaodyn · · Score: 4, Informative

      That was done with one fluid, and looked at the shape of the "empty" space at the bottom of the bucket - the article also states that the researcher didn't think it would apply to large bodies like planets, but possibly for small bodies like tornadoes. This recent experiment used a base fluid rotating at one speed and a "disk" to rotate a subset fluid at a higher rate, simulating jet streams - seems much more relevant than the previous experiment, IMO.

  5. Duh! by oldhack · · Score: 4, Funny

    That's where you stick the socket in. Stupid scientists.

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  6. SATURN HAS 6 CORNER by butalearner · · Score: 5, Funny

    SIMULTANEOUS 6-DAY

    TIME HEXAGON

    IN ONLY 10.57 HOUR ROTATION

    1. Re:SATURN HAS 6 CORNER by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      Burma Shave?

    2. Re:SATURN HAS 6 CORNER by Sparkycat · · Score: 3, Informative

      $1,000.00 TO ANYONE WHO CAN DISPROVE THE HARMONIC HEXAGON.

      ( http://www.timecube.com/ for anyone not getting the joke)

  7. Chalker's Well World by weston · · Score: 4, Funny

    "A giant hexagon encircling its north pole?"

    Well, that sounds familiar:

    "The team discovers a surface anomaly near the north pole of the planet, where a hexagonal hole appears for a brief interval every day. "

    I for one welcome... er, wonder where our Markovian Overlords went.

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  8. Re:Yawn by MartinSchou · · Score: 2, Informative

    Similar experiment, opposite conclusions.

    2006: Faster speeds, more sides
    2010: Faster speeds, fewer sides

  9. Pffftt by MrTripps · · Score: 2, Funny

    Wake me up when the find a giant black rectangular prism. ( http://movieimage2.tripod.com/2001/2001-04.jpg )

    --
    "I'm not a quack, I'm a mad scientist! There's a difference." - Dr. Cockroach
  10. Missing the obvious... by DoofusOfDeath · · Score: 3, Funny

    It's one of the valid places to move your Mech.

  11. Re:Mystery? by MozeeToby · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Just for starters...

    Why has it persisted for so long?
    Why is it red?

  12. Similar Features in Mercury by Sir+Holo · · Score: 4, Informative

    Similar oscillations have been observed in Mercury.

    Click on Activity 3.

  13. Isn't this a dupe from 2007? by thomasdz · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Dupe? http://science.slashdot.org/story/07/04/26/1626245/Possible-Clue-On-Saturns-Hexagon?art_pos=3

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  14. Re:Mystery? by Rockoon · · Score: 4, Funny

    Why is it on Jupiter?

    --
    "His name was James Damore."
  15. i could have saved them a bunch of money by FudRucker · · Score: 2, Informative

    i made hexagon shapes in the bird bath in my back yard with the garden hose while spraying water in it in such a way that gets water spinning in a circular direction (to clean out debris and freshen the water)

    --
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  16. UK catching up, only 11 years behind Denmark! by Old+School+Saturn+Fa · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Yeah so polygons are formed in hydraulic rotating systems when you introduce a vertical jet of a different viscosity. Welcome to 1999!

    Jesus this is getting ridiculous! When can Scandinavian scientists start to believe that UK/US researchers even scan their works before publishing? Its like Anders Celsius never existed!

    http://iopscience.iop.org/0951-7715/12/1/001;jsessionid=B8281BB419A9613CD40649F803F5C666.c2

    Full disclosure: I am not Danish

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  17. Re:Mystery? by MartinSchou · · Score: 2, Funny

    Because if it was on Earth it'd cover everything. Just look at what happened to Mars!

  18. Re:Yawn by arielCo · · Score: 2, Informative

    Stumped scientists first attributed the shape to a huge, stormlike vortex along one of the hexagon’s sides, which Voyager also spotted during its journey. Astronomers believed this gyre was altering the jet stream’s course, much in the same way a large rock would change a nearby river’s path. But when the Cassini mission returned to Saturn and photographed Saturn's north pole in 2006, the vortex was gone, yet the hexagon was still there.

    The PP is correct - it was also recreated in 2006 with only a spinning bottom. What was disproved is that the hexagon was shaped by an *offset* vortex. And it was featured in /. too, IKEA jokes included :) Quoth ye olde article:

    Tomas Bohr and colleagues made plexiglass buckets, 13 and 20 centimetres across, with metal bottoms that could be rotated at high speed by a motor. [...] Swinney, meanwhile, thinks that the process is unlikely to apply to large-scale flows such as that on Saturn, but might be relevant to smaller-scale phenomena such as tornadoes.

    Then again, experiments must be repeated for validation, additional data and other improvements (including prettier videos!)

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  19. Obligatory reference by ZaMoose · · Score: 2, Funny

    Professor: "I'm sorry, Fry, but astronomers renamed Uranus in 2620 to end that stupid joke once and for all."

    Fry: "Oh. What's it called now?"

    Professor: "Urectum. Here, let me locate it for you."

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  20. Buckyballs, natural or only synthetic by telomerewhythere · · Score: 3, Informative

    You know, I thought that at first too, and maybe you know more than I, but the article I linked says they occur naturally.

    Minute quantities of the fullerenes, in the form of C60, C70, C76, and C84 molecules, are produced in nature, hidden in soot and formed by lightning discharges in the atmosphere.[6] Recently, fullerenes were found in a family of minerals known as Shungites in Karelia, Russia.

    I looked up a few sources, and they agree. Here is one that looks legit: http://www.springerlink.com/content/w3856554l87733w3/fulltext.pdf?page=1

  21. Making symmetrical holes in water is easy by pizza_milkshake · · Score: 2, Informative

    I thought making symmetrical holes in water is easy http://www.nature.com/news/2006/060515/full/news060515-17.html