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Saturn’s Hexagon — 111 Places in Space That You Must Not Miss

Saturn’s Hexagon — 111 Places in Space That You Must Not Miss
Saturn’s Hexagon — 111 Places in Space That You Must Not Miss One of the more surreal entries in 111 Places in Space That You Must Not Miss is Saturn’s north pole, where a giant atmospheric hexagon encircles the planet’s crown. Nearly 29,000 km across (each side larger than Earth) the hexagon contains countless storms, with a vast central vortex plunging more than 100 km into the atmosphere. This strange geometry arises from Saturn’s powerful jet streams and rapid 10.5-hour rotation, locking atmospheric waves into a six-sided symmetry. Cassini / NASA, JPL-Caltech, Space Science Institute / image processing Mark McCaughrean, CC BY-SA