Sinister Shapes on Saturn
By Steve Robinson
A NASA probe has returned astonishing images of what appears to be a gigantic hexagon shape embedded in the atmosphere of Saturn (take a look). Scientists first saw the atmospheric anomaly over two decades ago when the Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft flew by the ringed planet, but the recent images show that this feature appears to be longer-lasting than was previously thought.
"This is a very strange feature, lying in a precise geometric fashion with six nearly equally straight sides," said Kevin Baines, an atmospheric expert and member of NASA's visual and infrared mapping spectrometer team for Cassini.
The Cassini Probe, launched in December 1997, took seven years to complete its journey to study Saturn and its moon Titan. It has been able to spend much longer studying the planet than the Voyager probes, which only took part in a fly-by. As a result, and due to Cassini's 'infrared mapping spectrometer', the entire formation was captured in one image for the first time.
Interestingly, though similar to Earth's polar vortex where winds blow circularly around the poles, there is no record of anything similar to this figure anywhere in the solar system. The discovery has lead some to believe that it is clear sign of extraterrestrial life! Although this is perhaps a leap too far, scientists do seem at a loss to explain its occurrence.
"We've never seen anything like this on any other planet," said Baines. "Indeed, Saturn's thick atmosphere where circularly-shaped waves and convective cells dominate is perhaps the last place you'd expect to see such a six-sided geometric figure, yet there it is."
The hexagon is enormous - nearly 15,000 miles across, big enough to swallow nearly four Earths - and only visible in infrared light, owing to the polar winter. This winter lasts fifteen years due to Saturn's rotation around the sun. Could there be a mysterious ET lurking within this obscurely geometrical formation on Saturn? Or is it just a meteorological anomaly? In the next two years the winter will ease and the pole should be viewable under normal light. But for now, the speculation mounts...
However, we don't want to wait two whole years - so get thinking. We want your explanations so that we can beat NASA at their own game. Let us know below. Alternatively enjoy more of Steve's musings here.
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Your Say
Perhaps the shape of the feature is due to resonance? There might be different interacting periodic forces, like the planetary rotation, diurnal heating, or indeed satellite effects which would have a "lowest common divisor" of six at some particular (rather high) latitude which would force the cloud patterns into the observed hexagon, something like a standing wave. (Think of those experiments where powder is spread on a surface which is excited by sound - as in this film)
Jonathan Richards, UK
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"This is a very strange feature, lying in a precise geometric fashion with six nearly equally straight sides," said Kevin Baines, an atmospheric expert and member of NASA's visual and infrared mapping spectrometer team for Cassini.
The Cassini Probe, launched in December 1997, took seven years to complete its journey to study Saturn and its moon Titan. It has been able to spend much longer studying the planet than the Voyager probes, which only took part in a fly-by. As a result, and due to Cassini's 'infrared mapping spectrometer', the entire formation was captured in one image for the first time.
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"We've never seen anything like this on any other planet," said Baines. "Indeed, Saturn's thick atmosphere where circularly-shaped waves and convective cells dominate is perhaps the last place you'd expect to see such a six-sided geometric figure, yet there it is."
The hexagon is enormous - nearly 15,000 miles across, big enough to swallow nearly four Earths - and only visible in infrared light, owing to the polar winter. This winter lasts fifteen years due to Saturn's rotation around the sun. Could there be a mysterious ET lurking within this obscurely geometrical formation on Saturn? Or is it just a meteorological anomaly? In the next two years the winter will ease and the pole should be viewable under normal light. But for now, the speculation mounts...
However, we don't want to wait two whole years - so get thinking. We want your explanations so that we can beat NASA at their own game. Let us know below. Alternatively enjoy more of Steve's musings here.
More stellar science:
- News - The blob from outer space
- Spoof - Custard proves space threat
- News - Planets, planets everywhere
- News - Global warming threat to the Hubble telescope
Your Say
Perhaps the shape of the feature is due to resonance? There might be different interacting periodic forces, like the planetary rotation, diurnal heating, or indeed satellite effects which would have a "lowest common divisor" of six at some particular (rather high) latitude which would force the cloud patterns into the observed hexagon, something like a standing wave. (Think of those experiments where powder is spread on a surface which is excited by sound - as in this film)
Jonathan Richards, UK
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