Posted on 09/08/2026 11:18:45 AM PDT by MtnClimber
Explanation: Why are Saturn’s poles geometric? Saturn’s North Pole has been known to be surrounded by a hexagonal (6 sides) cloud since discovery in 1987 in data taken by NASA’s Voyager spacecrafts, which quickly flew past the ringed world in the early 1980s. Now, recent observations of Saturn by the Hubble Space Telescope reveal a slightly different geometric cloud pattern around the South Pole: a decagon (10 sides). The geometric boundaries are possibly caused by waves when the fast-moving gas away from the poles interacts with slower-moving gas closer to the poles. In the featured image composite by the Hubble taken last year, the South Pole of Saturn is marked by an X and surrounded by bands of circulating clouds. The decagon appears most prominent in the dark inner regions. The northern hexagon has proven stable for over 40 years, while the stability of the southern decagon will surely remain a topic of research.
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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.
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Sorry for the duplicate image posts. I clicked “Post” and waited, and waited and nothing happened. Hit post again and waited and waited, then both turned up.
FR is sloooooow today for some reason.......
Denial of service attacks ahead of elections?
Pretty impressive for a big ball of gas! ;)
It may have a taller gear for forward than for reverse.
Yes, it’s happened before..........
Rossby Wave
From earth orbiting Hubble? I’d like to see the geometry of that photo.
Composite image.
Wow.
Yes, and I hope they fix it soon.
I noticed the slowness….who knows what it is…
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