Why is there a huge hexagon at Saturn's north pole?

   🌕 The rings of Saturn are typically the first thing that comes to mind when viewing this planet. A giant, six-sided pattern rotates in Saturn's atmosphere, though, and it looks like it's almost impossible!

    The Hexagon, Saturn's peculiar feature has been a fascination for scientists for decades. So what is it and why does Saturn have a giant hexagon at its north pole?

A hexagonal structure larger than the Earth.

The Hexagon on Saturn is not a solid object or even a big floating structure above the planet. It is a gigantic jet stream in Saturn's atmosphere, which circles the north pole in a hexagon shape.

The hexagon is estimated to be about 30,000 kilometers (20,000 miles) wide by NASA. The wind speed in the jet stream can be as high as 322 km/h (200 mph).

The most incredible aspect of this massive weather system is a strong rotating storm swirling around Saturn's north pole.

It is a discovery from the 1980s.It was first discovered by scientists in the 1980s.

The peculiar form was first seen in photos from NASA's Voyager satellites' visits to Saturn in the early 1980s.

But Voyager was unable to see the whole structure from directly over the pole. Only a space probe with far superior eyesight could help the scientists.

That was the spacecraft, Cassini.

Cassette orbited Saturn, investigating the planet and its atmosphere, for over 10 years since its arrival in 2004. Eventually its instruments gave scientists much more clear pictures of the hexagon and its complex structure.

So, why is it hexagonal?

This is where the mystery becomes even more interesting.

The shape is thought to be related to how atmospheric gases circulate around Saturn. The hexagon is the planetary wave in a very high-speed jet stream.

NASA observations reveal that the jet stream is in near-permanent motion in a 6-sided path. Other scientists have successfully made similar polygons in the lab by spinning fluids. Depending on the speed and properties of the fluid, shapes can form, such as hexagons.

The simple physics of the shape can be recreated on Earth, but Saturn's giant and very stable shape is far more complex.

A Storm Inside the Hexagon

Hexagon is not blank.

A huge hurricane-like storm rotates at Saturn's north pole in the pattern. On Earth, a typical hurricane eye is 1/50 the size of NASA's eye, reports NASA.

Within the hexagon are also smaller storms and vortices, which create a dynamic atmosphere.

The most amazing thing about the feature is that it lasts. Earth's storms may die down in short order, but Saturn's Hexagon has been known for decades.

A Mystery that still has not been fully solved!

Though scientists have discovered much about Saturn's Hexagon, one question still remains: What's so stable about the Hexagon for so long?

NASA says the hexagon is a persistent feature of Saturn's atmosphere, and Cassini observations showed its structure persists down deep into Saturn's atmosphere.

Saturn also has extremely long seasons. Each Saturnian season lasts for over seven Earth years and each Saturnian year is approximately 29 Earth years. This means the atmosphere on Saturn is vastly different from weather patterns here on Earth.

A Giant Atmospheric Puzzle: Saturn's Hexagon

The north-pole hexagon is one of Saturn's most bizarre weather systems in the Solar System. It's a large jet stream, thousands of kilometers wide, hundreds of kilometers an hour in the air and wrapping around a giant polar storm.

Scientists are still working on the question of how such a stable geometric pattern can be formed and maintained long-term after years of observations by Voyager and Cassini.

The most interesting thing is that Saturn is teaching us something that might seem unattainable at face value – that moving gases and physics can form some pretty amazing geometric patterns.