Saturn's Hexagon and Rings

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 . If Saturn's South Pole wasn't strange enough with its rotating vortex , Saturn's North Pole might be considered even stranger. The bizarre cloud pattern is shown above in great detail by a recent image taken by the Saturn -orbiting Cassini spacecraft . 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 Earth s could fit inside the hexagon . Imaged from the side, the dark shadow of the Jovian planet is seen eclipsing part of its grand system of rings , partly visible on the upper right.

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APOD Public Talk: Feb. 21, Howard Astronomical League, Columbia, MD