Is there really a hexagon on Saturn?
Saturn’s hexagon is a persistent approximately hexagonal cloud pattern around the north pole of the planet Saturn, located at about 78°N. The sides of the hexagon are about 14,500 km (9,000 mi) long, which is about 2,000 km (1,200 mi) longer than the diameter of Earth.
Why is there a big hexagon on Saturn?
The smaller storms interact with the larger system and as a result effectively pinch the eastern jet and confine it to the top of the planet. The pinching process warps the stream into a hexagon.
What is the hexagon shape on Saturn?
“Saturn’s Hexagon” is a swirling maelstrom at the planet’s north pole that, as its name implies, has an odd, hexagonal shape. The hexagon is an ever-present cloud pattern that “stands” as tall as an enormous, whirling tower on the planet.
Does Saturn’s hexagon change color?
The mysterious hexagon at Saturn’s northern pole has changed colour from blue to gold, scientists have said. The hexagon is essentially a rotating cloud pattern; its shape may originate as the result of large differences in the speeds of Saturn’s winds.
Why is the pole of Saturn hexagonal?
They believe that vortexes occur at the planet’s north pole because of atmospheric flows deep within the gas giant, and that these vortexes pinch an intense horizontal jet near the equator—which is what warps the storm into a hexagon.
Is The hexagon on Saturn a storm?
A turbulent hexagon-shaped storm has been raging near Saturn’s north pole for at least four decades – we first discovered it in 1981 during the Voyager mission. Even with a front-row view from the Cassini probe however, details on Saturn’s hexagon have been scant.
How big is the hexagon on Saturn?
Researchers have generally regarded the 20,000-mile-wide (32,000 kilometers) hexagon — a jet stream composed of air moving at about 200 mph (320 km/h) — as a lower-atmosphere phenomenon, restricted to the clouds of Saturn’s troposphere.
How old is Saturn’s hexagon?
38 years
The hexagon, which surrounds a smaller circular vortex situated at the north pole, has existed for at least 38 years; NASA’s Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 spacecraft spotted the sharp-cornered feature when they flew by Saturn in 1980 and 1981, respectively.
Why can’t we see the hexagon at Saturn’s North Pole?
High-resolution views of the hexagon have only recently become possible because of the changing of the seasons at Saturn and changes in the Cassini spacecraft’s orbit. The north pole was dark when Cassini first arrived in July 2004.
When did Cassini take the picture of Saturn’s hexagon?
In late 2012, Cassini began making swings over Saturn’s poles, giving it better views of the hexagon. The eight frames of the movie were captured over 10 hours on Dec.10, 2012. Each of the eight frames consists of 16 map-projected images (four per color filter, and four filters per frame) so the movie combines data from 128 images total.
What is Saturn’s hexagon-shaped jet stream called?
This colorful view from NASA’s Cassini mission is the highest-resolution view of the unique six-sided jet stream at Saturn’s north pole known as “the hexagon.”
What can scientists see in the hexagon in this movie?
Scientists can see the motion of a wide variety of cloud structures that reside within the hexagon in this movie. There is a massive hurricane tightly centered on the north pole, with an eye about 50 times larger than the average hurricane eye on Earth. (More information about that Saturn hurricane is at PIA14947 .)