Fergie's Tech Blog

Space Tech: Cassini Images Bizarre Hexagon on Saturn

Saturn’s active north pole.
Image source: European Space Agency (ESA)

An odd, six-sided, honeycomb-shaped feature circling the entire north pole of Saturn has captured the interest of scientists with the Cassini mission.

This atmospheric feature was already imaged by NASA’s Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft over two decades ago. The fact that it has appeared in Cassini images indicates that it is a long-lived feature. A second hexagon, significantly darker than the brighter historical feature, is also visible in the Cassini pictures. The spacecraft's visual and infrared mapping spectrometer (VIMS) is the first instrument to capture the entire hexagon feature in one image.

posted by Fergie @ 3/27/2007 12:34:00 PM