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from the it's-that-bloody-dress-again! dept.
Submitted via IRC for TheMightyBuzzard
It's like nothing we've seen on any other planet in the entire Universe, and now the mysterious structure on Saturn's north pole just got even weirder.
In just four years, Saturn's hexagon has changed its colour from blue to gold. So far, our best guess as to why this change occurred is that this is what it looks like when Saturn's north pole gears up for next year's summer solstice.
Discovered almost 30 years ago, Saturn's hexagon is a six-sided structure that spans roughly 32,000 km (20,000 miles) in diameter, and extends about 100 km (60 miles) down into the planet's dense atmosphere.
As observed by NASA's Voyager and Cassini spacecraft, each point of the hexagon appears to rotate at its centre at nearly the same rate that Saturn rotates on its axis. Along the rim of the hexagon, a jet stream of air is blasting eastward at speeds of 321 km/h (200 mph).
Based on its size and movements, scientists have concluded that it's a vast cloud pattern generated by a gigantic, perpetual hurricane spinning at the centre of the planet's north pole.
Scientists estimate that this storm has been raging for decades - maybe even centuries.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Runaway1956 on Thursday October 27 2016, @10:24AM
I had almost the same comment. It's not like we've explored hundreds of thousands of planets, up close and personal. Or millions. Or trillions. What we have are a handful of planets and other smaller rocks orbiting one star for comparison. Phhhtttt - you've really got to wonder about the credentials of these authors.
It's like I discover a new species of animals, and ONE of them is somehow different. Most of the critters are a golden tan color. But that other one is definitely brown. So, I write an article about that one critter, "No other thingamabob has ever been seen with this coloration!" I'll just neglect to say that mankind has only ever observed sixteen of these animals. There might be zillions of them, but we've only ever seen sixteen for comparison. Maybe the brown critter is actually the norm, and the golden tans are abnormal within the greater population that we haven't seen yet.