Cassini Probes the Hexagon On Saturn

Riding with Robots sends us to a NASA page with photos of a little-understood hexagonal shape surrounding Saturn's north pole. "This is a very strange feature, lying in a precise geometric fashion with six nearly equally straight sides," said Kevin Baines, member of Cassini's visual and infrared mapping spectrometer team. "We've never seen anything like this on any other planet." This structure was discovered by the Voyager probes over 20 years ago (here's an 18-year-old note on the mystery). The fact that it's still in place means it is stable and long-lived. Scientists have no idea what causes the hexagon. It's nearly big enough to fit four earths inside — comfortably larger than Jupiter's Great Red Spot. The article has an animation of clouds moving within the hexagon captured in infrared light.

North Pole?

[ArcherB (796902)]

The Saturn North Pole? Isn't that where Saturn Clause lives? Maybe he has something to do with it.

Re:North Pole?

[Walt Dismal (534799)]

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Re:North Pole?

[ColaMan (37550)]

Reminds me of that old joke:

A guy gets invited to a hunting lodge one evening, and on his arrival, everyone is having a few beers and taking it easy. Suddenly, one of them stands up and says, "27". Everyone has a bit of a laugh and they clap appreciatively. Another person stands and says, "48." Again this is met with laughter and a few guffaws.

The visitor is perplexed and asks his host, "What's going on here?"
His host replies, "Oh, these guys have known each other for years, so long now that they know all their jokes. So, to save time , they numbered them."
"Oh!" the visitor says.
"Did you want to have a try at it?" says the host.

With much trepidation, the visitor stands up and says, "96."

Well, it brought the house down. Grizzled old men are rolling about, clutching their sides laughing, gasping for breath. This goes on for nearly ten minutes.

"Wow! They really liked that one!" says the visitor.
"I'll say!" said the host, wiping a tear from his eye, "They hadn't heard that one before!"

/. story about spinning water?

[spun (1352)]

Wasn't there a story here within the last six months or so about spinning a bucket of water at the right speed and having it form geometric forms, including a hexagon?

Re:/. story about spinning water?

[omnilynx (961400)]

Another related possibility is spherical harmonics [wikipedia.org], similar to what happens in the sun. The planet would be effectively resonating like a 3D drumhead. If that's true, there should be other points on the surface that exhibit similar phenomena.

Re:/. story about spinning water?

[sfcfagwdse (805746)]

Here's one: http://www.physorg.com/news66924222.html [physorg.com]

Re:/. story about spinning water?

[Rei (128717)]

The curious thing, though, is that the south pole is very different -- almost looks like a human eye [space.com]. I wonder what sort of rotational effect could cause such an asymmetry between north and south poles?

Re:/. story about spinning water?

[samkass (174571)]

Typing "spinning water hexagon Slashdot" into Google turned up this article [slashdot.org]

Re:/. story about spinning water?

[greg_barton (5551)]

You mean, specifically, "Swinney, meanwhile, thinks that the process is unlikely to apply to large-scale flows such as that on Saturn, but might be relevant to smaller-scale phenomena such as tornadoes." [slashdot.org]

Original article [nature.com]

Re:/. story about spinning water?

[spun (1352)]

Maybe the solid core is acting like the agitator? Perhaps there are rougher features at the northern pole than there are at the southern, explaining why there is no southern hexagon. The article says the hexagon rotates at the same speed as radio emissions from Saturn, which they assume is the same speed as the core rotates.

it must be

[unfortunateson (527551)]

space bees

Re:it must be bees

[saskboy (600063)]

I agree, the only logical conclusion is that Saturn has been colonized by giant space bees who have made it their honey comb hive.

intelligent life

[BigHungryJoe (737554)]

With Fife Symington coming forward and saying that the Phoenix Lights from 1997 were actually an "other worldly craft" - how much longer can we believe ourselves to be alone in the universe?

It's obvious to me, as a trained ufologist, that this is not a natural phenomenon. This hexagonal structure was BUILT by intelligent life.

Re:intelligent life

[CRCulver (715279)]

It's obvious to me, as a trained ufologist, that this is not a natural phenomenon.

It looks like this is the moment that years of hard work at the Correspondence College of Tampa prepared you for. Congratulations. (end obscure Simpsons reference).

Re:intelligent life

[stratjakt (596332)]

Intelligent life couldn't "build" a long-term atmospheric feature?

What are we to make of Lando's cloud city?

THINK ABOUT LANDO FOR ONCE IN YOUR LIFE YOU RACIST

old hardware?

[physicsboy500 (645835)]

Perhaps the universe is just poorly anti-aliased

Mystery Solved

[erroneus (253617)]

When God created Saturn, he used a low polygon count to speed up the rendering process.

A truly bizzare hexagon

[Suzumushi (907838)]

From TFA, "This nighttime view of Saturn's north pole shows a bizarre six-sided hexagon"

Last time I checked, all hexagons had six sides...

Re:A truly bizzare hexagon

[Tablizer (95088)]

From TFA, "This nighttime view of Saturn's north pole shows a bizarre six-sided hexagon" Last time I checked, all hexagons had six sides...

I once divided by zero and nothing happened, so now I'll try to create a seven-sided h
                   

Re:A truly bizzare hexagon

[StikyPad (445176)]

Yeah, but when's the last time you checked?

I see pattern

[Al Al Cool J (234559)]

Saturn is the sixth planet out.
A hexagon has six sides.
There is a second hexagon inside the first. Another six sides.

6-6-6

Hmmm, that number kind of has a ring to it. And so does Saturn.

Coincidence?

Re:I see pattern

[Al Al Cool J (234559)]

Yes, 616 was the original number of the beast. However he changed it to 666 because it was easier to remember. I think it was the combination on his briefcase or something.

Obviously...

[ingo23 (848315)]

... it's a nut holding the rings in place. You can even see the bolt.

It's a Dissipative Structure

[vandan (151516)]

Fritjov Capra [wikipedia.org] ( this guy's an absolute legend, by the way ) had an interesting section on hexagonal structures like these in his book, Web of Life [fractal.org]. He was talking about Dissipative Structures [viawest.net], discovered by Ilya Prigogine.

In the experiment that was being described, a small dish of water was heated up uniformly from below. At a certain point, these hexagonal structures emerged. Hot water would rise from the bottom of the dish, travelling in a pipe directly through the middle of the hexagon ( forming a point in the middle that you could see ). When the water hit the surface, it spread out cooled, and then travelled back down to the bottom, creating the sides of the hexagon. Apparently they were getting multiple hexagons, and they were incredibly stable ... ie you could run a pen through them and disturb them, and they'd immediately revert to these perfect hexagons. It was fascinating reading - thoroughly recommended for people interested in biology, physics, and philosophy.

AT field ?

[Yvanhoe (564877)]

AT field detected on Saturn's surface ! Code Orange ! Launch all EVA units, and someone go fetch me the Longinus Spear !