Possible Clue On Saturn's Hexagon? 70
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.
Short Explaination? (Score:3, Insightful)
cue Ligeti's "Atmospheres"...
Dept of Redundancy dept. (Score:4, Insightful)
Note to
Re:Intelligent Design (Score:3, Insightful)
That's the one fact that most ID-ists and Evolutionists both miss, and it applies in nearly every argument they have. The problem is, it forces them both to STFU if they accept that fact, and when you have an agenda to push, STFU-ing is the last thing you want to do.
Can't we all just STFU along?
(BTW, your joke is not lost on me. I find it humorous as a dig on ID-ists even though I myself believe in a Creator.)
Re:Two Minor Things (Score:5, Insightful)
We have much higher resolution pictures of this phenomenon relative to its scale. It could be a lot of things, including mere coincidence, though it seems more likely to be real. Unlike a face, which would have required a civilization (or wild coincidence) to create, there's reason to believe that there is a physical mechanism. It just may or may not be the one suggested in the article (though I'm willing to bet it's at least distantly related).
Benard cells? (Score:3, Insightful)
Benard cells form in a horizontal layer of fluid with warmer fluid below cooler fluid. The instability can be seen in different shapes dependent on the wave number of the most excited mode. The hexagonal cell solution was found by Christopherson (1940) 'Note on the Vibration of Membranes' - Quarterly J of Mathematics 11, 63-5, but many others exist.
Re:Intelligent Design (Score:4, Insightful)
No, actually.. it really doesn't.
Not scientific merits, anyway.
Re:Benard cells? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:First time around... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Short Explaination? (Score:3, Insightful)
HOWEVER, did you know that although the film has the monolith at Jupiter (due to sfx limitations at the time), the original storyline and the novel both have the monolith at SATURN.
See, it all falls into place now...