Strange Hexagon Spotted on Saturn

Astronomers have spotted a bizarre weather pattern circling the North Pole of Saturn.

A strange six-sided, honeycomb cloud pattern spotted by Voyager 1 and 2 more than two decades ago has shown up again. The Cassini space probe has also picked up this strange, geometrically correct feature, and scientists believe this may be a long lasting weather pattern anomaly for Saturn.

The six sides of his hexagon have nearly equal sides, and is 15,000 miles across. Thermal imagery shows this anomaly reaches about 60 miles down into the clouds.

"It's amazing to see such striking differences on opposite ends of Saturn's poles," said Bob Brown, team leader of the Cassini visual and infrared mapping spectrometer at the University of Arizona. "At the south pole we have what appears to be a hurricane with a giant eye, and at the north pole of Saturn we have this geometric feature, which is completely different."

Scientists have never seen anything like this on any other planet. This pattern also seems strange for Saturn because of the thick atmosphere where circularly-shaped waves and convective cells dominate.

Scientists are still uncertain about the rate of rotation for Saturn, but it appears the hexagonal pattern is in sync with the rotation rate and axis of this mysterious planet. The uncertainty about the rate of rotation for Saturn also means scientists do not really know how long a day is on Saturn.

Read more at Yahoo News