Astronomy Picture of the Day - Saturn's Northern Hexagon

NASA ^ | 18 Jun, 2023 | Image Credit & Copyright: NASA, ESA, JPL, SSI, Cassini Imaging Team

[MtnClimber]

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.

[MtnClimber]

To be added or removed from the Astronomy Picture of the Day ping list please send me a request via "Private Reply" (Mail).

For more detail go to the link and click on the image for a high definition image. You can then move the magnifying glass cursor then click to zoom in and click again to zoom out. When zoomed in you can scan by moving the side bars on the bottom and right side of the image.

[MtnClimber]

[MtnClimber]

Pinging the APOD list.

🪐 🌟 🌌 🍔

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

Hexagons are the bestagons. :)

[budj]

Actually, hexagons represent minimum geometric energy. Honeycombs use them, as well as soap bubble meshes.

[martin_fierro]

Venus got vortices.

[Ronaldus Magnus III]

Where is the ‘I’m not saying it’s aliens, but, It’s Aliens’ guy with the hair?

I’m still teaching myself html, and I’m not sure how to post images yrt.

[thecodont]

Actually, hexagons represent minimum geometric energy. Honeycombs use them, as well as soap bubble meshes.

Then that blue dot in the inner border of the hexagon must have higher energy, because it forms a circle.

[No name given]

Beautiful.

[SunkenCiv]

I was expecting the color to be shocking blue.

[SunkenCiv]

Saturn’s obviously a giant beehive.

[Swordmaker]

The Polar Hexagon on Saturn (And Jupiter) were predictable under the Electruc/Plasma Universe Colsmology Theory. To have such a structure requires some energy balancing system. Electromagnetism and the flows of energy concomitant with that provides that and the structure is natural to it. PING!

Saturnian Hexagon
Explicable By Using Electric Universe Theory!

If you want on or off the Electric/Plasma Universe Ping List, Freepmail me.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

I dropped out of Colsmology School in the ‘70s. Went insane from inhaling Aqua Net. ;)

“Beauty school dropout
No graduation day for you
Beauty school dropout
Missed your midterms and flunked shampoo...”

[DannyTN]

You should see the landing ship.

It’s a miracle of modern alien geometric design and planet destroying technology.

[Swordmaker]

dropped out of Colsmology School in the ‘70s. Went insane from inhaling Aqua Net

Damn good catch. Typos can be fun, especially when autocorrect is supposed to catch and correct them .. ROTFLMAO!

Flunked shampoo?! What’s you do? Use real poo?

[Red Badger]

MY GOD! IT'S FULL OF BEES!..................

[JimRed]

What wonders God has wrought!