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posted by janrinok on Thursday October 27 2016, @09:53AM   Printer-friendly
from the it's-that-bloody-dress-again! dept.

Submitted via IRC for TheMightyBuzzard

Source: http://www.sciencealert.com/saturn-s-mysterious-hexagon-has-changed-from-blue-to-gold-and-no-one-knows-why

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.


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  • (Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday October 27 2016, @09:42PM

    by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Thursday October 27 2016, @09:42PM (#419582) Journal

    Point being, they should not admit such extreme ignorance, and for the writer to help them out like this is condescending and downright rude.

    The word you're missing here is "helpful". You can always just not read a article which is not near perfectly geared to your level of competence.

  • (Score: 2) by aristarchus on Friday October 28 2016, @06:41AM

    by aristarchus (2645) on Friday October 28 2016, @06:41AM (#419754) Journal

    KHALLOW! You are not helping! How am I supposed to tell the difference between a hexagon, and a Hex-be-Gone, that my preacher assures me will block the warts sent to me by my wicked half-brother/quarter cousin, Mighty Buzzard? What about the dodecahedrons? Oh, crap, they do not teach basic solids geometry any more? And I thought the inability to do stats was a problem. OK, as an ancient Greek, I gotta say, your education system has really failed to reach a common core. F, it's math, you all, and mathe in Greek means lessons, school lessons. Psst.