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Cassini Gets Amazing Views of Saturn's Hexagon

Posted by Soulskill on from the cassini-is-the-best dept.

SternisheFan sends this excerpt from a JPL news release: "NASA's Cassini spacecraft has obtained the highest-resolution movie yet of a unique six-sided jet stream, known as the hexagon, around Saturn's north pole. This is the first hexagon movie of its kind (GIF), using color filters, and the first to show a complete view of the top of Saturn down to about 70 degrees latitude. Spanning about 20,000 miles (30,000 kilometers) across, the hexagon is a wavy jet stream of 200-mile-per-hour winds (about 322 kilometers per hour) with a massive, rotating storm at the center. There is no weather feature exactly, consistently like this anywhere else in the solar system. 'The hexagon is just a current of air, and weather features out there that share similarities to this are notoriously turbulent and unstable,' said Andrew Ingersoll, a Cassini imaging team member at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. 'A hurricane on Earth typically lasts a week, but this has been here for decades — and who knows — maybe centuries.'"

13 of 50 comments (clear)

  1. Be Proud USA by occasional_dabbler · · Score: 4, Insightful

    You really did some cool shit. Please get back to that agenda

    --
    "Our opponent is an alien starship packed with atomic bombs," I said. "we have a protractor"
  2. Why a Hexagon? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Why isn't it a spiral; why do the winds run roughly straight, then make a sharp turn and then run roughly straight again? I am not an astro-physicist, hell I don't even know if that's the correct term. But if someone out there knows why the peculiar shape I'd be most intrigued to find out.

    1. Re:Why a Hexagon? by BattleApple · · Score: 5, Informative

      http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily-lakdawalla/2010/2471.html

    2. Re:Why a Hexagon? by onepoint · · Score: 2

      WOW that was a great link, and the explanations were easy to understand.
      what I did like was the particle presentation video of the hexagon, very cool.

      I got to admit, i might have observed this before, but never paid attention to it.
      in the video, you could see and understand how the points of the hexagon are made.

      THANKS!!!

      --
      if you see me, smile and say hello.
  3. What is going on by JoshuaZ · · Score: 5, Informative

    One of the strangest things about the hexagon is that other gas giants don't see to have anything like it. And it rotates with the same period as Saturn's natural radio emissions, which is not the period of rotation of Saturn itself. See http://www.sciencemag.org/content/247/4947/1206. Also, relevant SMBC: http://www.smbc-comics.com/?id=1930.

    1. Re:What is going on by wjcofkc · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Natural wonder at it's finest, that's what. We should consider ourselves lucky it's in our own backyard. Perhaps one day people will travel to Saturn just to vacation in orbit and take in the wonder of this phenomenon in similar fashion to visiting Earthly wonders such as Niagara Falls or the Grand Canyon. If the phenomenon lasts long enough, and I live long enough, I would like to go. Can you imagine staring down at thing in all of it's immensity, from orbit? I can't.

      --
      Brought to you by Carl's Junior.
  4. Re:Let me be among the first... by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 4, Funny

    I have no clue what I'm looking at.

    The Saturnian Department of Defense? The funny thing is, it looks like it's full of staaaaaaa... [carrier lost]

    --
    Ezekiel 23:20
  5. Re:Frustrating... by jddeluxe · · Score: 2

    Well, guess this explains it: http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily-lakdawalla/2010/2471.html

  6. Re:Compass by alexander_686 · · Score: 4, Funny

    No, it’s just that God prefers Allen wrenches.

  7. I know something better by stevegee58 · · Score: 3, Funny

    The Hexagon of Saturn is nothing compared with the Delta of Venus
    I want some pics of that.

  8. Re:Compass by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 2

    No, it’s just that God prefers Allen wrenches.

    That explains why celestial mechanics is so wacky.

    --
    Ezekiel 23:20
  9. Re:Let me be among the first... by VortexCortex · · Score: 4, Funny

    ...to say the .gif is mesmerizing, and I have no clue what I'm looking at.

    If you later said, "Lol, that's a false color prostate exam camera," I wouldn't be shocked.

    Really? I'd be shocked. This is Saturn not Uranus.

  10. Re:8 frames of clear skies by Teun · · Score: 2
    A rocky core, yeah right :)

    http://www.universetoday.com/15322/

    Saturn has the lowest density of all the planets in the Solar System. The actual number is 0.687 grams per cubic centimeter. This is actually less dense than water; if you had a large enough pool of water, Saturn would float.
    Just for comparison, Jupiter has an average density of 1.33 grams per cubic centimeter. So it wouldn’t float on water. And Earth, the densest planet in the Solar System, measures 5.51 grams/cubic centimeter.

    --
    "The likes of Facebook and WhatsApp are free to those whose privacy is of zero value."