Suggested Searches

 

1 min read

Decagon on Saturn’s South Pole (Color)

Side-by-side comparison of two views of the gas giant Saturn, labeled “August 29, 2025” at the top left corner. At left is a straight-on view of Saturn, a globe with pale yellow horizontal bands at the equator and orange and pink at the mid-latitudes. Some bands towards the north and south pole have a light blue hue. There are prominent horizontal rings circling at the equator. At right, labeled “Saturn’s south pole,” the south-polar view of Saturn shows concentric bands in its atmosphere, mostly tan and orange, surrounding a dark central region that has a 10-sided outline. A small, dashed circle at the very center of the pole with an “X” inside denotes missing data.

Two views of Saturn from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope reveal a giant, evolving 10-sided atmospheric wave encircling the planet’s south pole. The feature, called a decagon, is the first large, persistent, regular-sided pattern observed at Saturn’s southern hemisphere.

By comparing observations taken over several years, researchers found that the pattern has become increasingly distinct since 2023, suggesting they may be witnessing a new atmospheric phenomenon develop on the gas giant. The observations, captured by Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3, were made as part of Hubble’s Outer Planet Atmosphere’s Legacy (OPAL) program, which has monitored the Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune for more than a decade.

The “X” and dashed circle in the image on the right represent where data was not captured by Hubble.

About the Data

  • Data Description
    Data DescriptionProposal: A description of the observations, their scientific justification, and the links to the data available in the science archive.
    Science Team: The astronomers who planned the observations and analyzed the data. "PI" refers to the Principal Investigator.

    These images were created with Hubble data from proposal: 17843 (A. Simon).

  • Instrument
    InstrumentThe science instrument used to produce the data.
    WFC3/UVIS
  • Exposure Dates
    Exposure DatesThe date(s) that the telescope made its observations and the total exposure time.
    29 Aug 2025
  • Filters
    FiltersThe camera filters that were used in the science observations.
    F395N, F502N, F631N
  • Object Name
    Object NameA name or catalog number that astronomers use to identify an astronomical object.
    Saturn
  • Object Description
    Object DescriptionThe type of astronomical object.
    Gas giant in our solar system
  • Release Date
    September 2, 2026
  • Science Release
    NASA’s Hubble Tracks New Decagon Encircling Saturn’s South Pole
    Read the release
  • Credit
    Image: NASA, ESA, STScI, Agustin Sánchez-Lavega (UPV), Amy Simon (NASA-GSFC), Michael Wong (UC Berkeley); Image Processing: Alyssa Pagan

Downloads

  • Full Res (For Print), 2494 × 1247
    tif (8.91 MB)
  • Full Res (For Display), 2494 × 1247
    png (2.59 MB)
  • 2494 × 1247
    jpg (406.34 KB)
  • 2000 × 1000
    jpg (264.14 KB)
Side-by-side comparison of two views of the gas giant Saturn, labeled “August 29, 2025” at the top left corner. At left is a straight-on view of Saturn, a globe with pale yellow horizontal bands at the equator and orange and pink at the mid-latitudes. Some bands towards the north and south pole have a light blue hue. There are prominent horizontal rings circling at the equator. At right, labeled “Saturn’s south pole,” the south-polar view of Saturn shows concentric bands in its atmosphere, mostly tan and orange, surrounding a dark central region that has a 10-sided outline. A small, dashed circle at the very center of the pole with an “X” inside denotes missing data.
Color Info
Color InfoA brief description of the methods used to convert telescope data into the color image being presented.

These images were acquired by the WFC3/UVIS instrument on Hubble. The color results from assigning different hues (colors) to a monochromatic (grayscale) image. In this case, the assigned colors are: Blue: F395N, Green: F502N, Red: F631N

Related Images & Videos

A black and white view of Saturn’s south pole, labeled “August 29, 2025” and “F763M.” The south-polar view of Saturn shows concentric bands of its atmosphere, transitioning from bright outer bands to a dark central region outlined in a 10-sided pattern. This outline is labeled “decagon.” A small, dashed circle at the very center of the pole with an “X” inside denotes missing data.

Decagon on Saturn’s South Pole (Single Filter)

A single filter from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope distinctly shows a 10-sided wave encircling Saturn’s south pole, labeled “decagon”. An “X” denotes where data was not captured.

Share

Details

Last Updated
Sep 02, 2026
Location
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Contact
Media

Claire Andreoli
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
Greenbelt, Maryland
claire.andreoli@nasa.gov

Related Terms

Keep Exploring

Discover More Topics From Hubble

Hubble Space Telescope

Since its 1990 launch, the Hubble Space Telescope has changed our fundamental understanding of the universe.

Hubble Science Highlights

Hubble's most notable scientific discoveries reflect the broad range of research and the breakthroughs it has achieved.

Hubble Images

Explore Hubble's iconic images of the universe, and view photos of mission operations and astronauts servicing Hubble in space.

Hubble News