Possible Clue On Saturn's Hexagon?

permaculture sends us to nature.com for a description of new (and old) research that might possibly shed some light on the origin of the hexagon around Saturn's north pole. Researchers at the Technical University of Denmark have spun buckets of water, in much the same way Isaac Newton did, and photographed geometrical whirlpools developing. As the buckets are spun up, central holes develop that are first elliptical, then triangular, then square, pentagonal, and hexagonal. A UT Austin researcher is quoted as saying it's unlikely this process is behind the Saturn mystery.

First time around...

[Dan East]

This was brought to light [slashdot.org] the first time around.

Dan East

Slow news day...

[Floritard]

The whirlpools theory was actually linked to in the comments for the original article on slashdot about a month ago. I guess one way to get new stories is to harvest from the comments on old stories.

Re:Chaos theory

[Tofystedeth]

Not to mention there is a difference between "Hey, that cloud over there looks kinda like a butterfly if I squint and turn it sideways!" and "Hey! That enormous section of the north pole of an entire planet looks remarkably like a regular hexagon!" One is basically a rorschach (sp) test. The other is a nifty example of geometry cropping up in nature on a gigantic scale, and for an extended period of time. I don't know how long its been there, but according to the article it has been stable for at least 26 years. In addition, understanding how it works would help them understand more about what goes on underneath Saturn's surface.

Re:Two Minor Things

[poopdeville]

The face on mars was just a freak of low-resolution photography, couldn't the same sort of human error be responsible here?

No. The hexagon is huge. See http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/multimed ia/pia09185.html [nasa.gov]

Re:Benard cells?

[Goaway]

Bernard cells are Bernard cells. They don't appear on their own, and their shape is caused by the fact that there are many of them.